Time Travel Paradoxal Things
by Valtil
Summary: Time machines caused problems. Major ones. You'd think that they would cause paradoxes, logic implosions, instant death... well, it didn't do that. Save for the imminent implosion of your mind.
1. It kind of worked!

**Warnings:** One major one; if you are a purist, this will make you cry for those who love you, and then you will cry yourself to sleep. On another note, there's simply violence and cursing.

**Disclaimer:** ...I'm taking the easy way out of this. I don't own any characters, places, etc. They belong to their creators and real owners, who would also cry themselves to sleep looking at this, and if I did own anything besides the idea and the words, the world would be very, very sad.

* * *

{.chapter o1.}

yes, it... kind of worked?

_Monday, June 21st, 2010; the day on which I pretty much royally screwed up everything_

"Let's see... time machine project is currently labeled as _finished_... now to go through the usual routine... for the _sixth_ time...!" Currently a little irritated, I muttered this under my breath, my eyes staring over the upper rim of my glasses, looking more at the silvery-white machine that looked more like a pod with controls wrapping around the outside. It was about time in that I tested it out already, having looked at it five times now, and unless something particularly _unusual_ happened this time, one of two things could happen. Either it would work, or it _wouldn't_.

I was secretly hoping it wouldn't. There was still a bit I needed to do, and if it worked, then... I wasn't completely sure as to what would happen. So far as I knew, no one but the Time Police could time travel, meaning I was screwing with the natural laws of reality, not that I wasn't screwing with them simply by _existing_... either way, though, I didn't want to throw caution to the wind if I didn't have to this time. Then I could fine-tune everything and be quite sure everything was in working order _{but only quite; absolutions were assumptions, and __**always**__ bad}_, and from there, I could hopefully be able to successfully - and safely - jump through time, or even realities, as space and time were carefully interlocked... why do you think there's such a thing as the 'fabric of the space-time continuum'? It certainly didn't exist merely because it sounded cool, though it may have had a part in it. Besides, it _was_ there; I had even ripped it apart once.

That... hadn't exactly been _fun_, either, but I pushed that to the back of my mind. "...no missing controls... power cord... is _not_ plugged in... therefore, not _powered_... fixing..." Actually, I had already checked this thing over _five times_ by now, so I was now hoping that the machine _would_ work, since I had worked on it for a relatively long time, compared to my _other_ projects. I grabbed the power cord and plugged it in the unfilled outlet, and a soft purr rose from somewhere inside the machine. _Now to turn it on..._ My left arm made its way up the control panel, and I flicked a switch. "...and now it's booting up! Hopefully."

So while it was booting up, I checked the date. About a year ago from last week, when I'd first started to test it. That was good - it retained the settings, obviously. I nodded, satisfied with this, and I strode over to the pod, stepping inside warily and closing the durable sliding door. I just needed to check the stability of the small room inside, make sure it would function correctly, and then, I would...

I paused, grimacing as an unusual low-sounding beep could be heard, along with louder and more high-pitched whirring, all with an unsettling mess of static that switched between fading in and out or stopping and starting abruptly, and I proceeded to become a little worried. "This... doesn't... sound... _good_... not good at _all_..." Glancing around, I attempted to open the door again, but to no avail. The obvious solution? _Try harder._ I did _just_ that, trying to open the door with more force and inevitably _failing_. "Come on, damn you, open, _open_!"

Unfortunately, at this point, I wasn't sure if it was working or crashing, and my addled mind didn't think of manipulating my size to break out, and nothing else would really work. _Then again, if it were crashing, wouldn't it have done that by now?_ So I concluded that it had to be working... or freezing up. Either thing seemed possible at this point. I froze up when the static strengthened, and the room appeared to tremble.

This was... bad. Very, very bad. So I thought.

The trembling and noise increased before stopping rather abruptly, and I pursed my lips, trying to work the door one final time. _Stuck._ I bit my lower lip, glancing around and pressing myself against the curved wall. I couldn't exactly wait the machine out - my patience and attention span just wasn't long enough for that - and I'd been a fool not to make an override code in case this happened. It was at this point I groaned.

It was also at this point a bright beam of light, or at least something really bright, filled the room and left an empty space where I had once stood.

~.x.~

...and it was a cloud of dust I found myself in only moments later. I was quite unsure of where I was now; certainly not in the past, so I thought. Not in Superjail, anyway. I was somewhere... outside of there, with blood on the ground, shouts, and the sounds of bullets ripping through the air. The latter two sounded rather distant for now, luckily enough for me. The area itself was a little dark, like it were becoming somewhere late in the evening, but there was still plenty of light so that I could see, and my mind concluded that I was caught in the middle of a battle _somewhere_ in time, and said battle was taking place in the outside world. _Obviously._

Right then, something in my head clicked. "Yes! It... kind of worked!" I cheered this only moments before I realized I was still potentially in danger. I then tried to tell myself to shut up, if possible. I at least got up to my knees before a low male voice rang through the air as the sounds of battle neared me.

"Fire in the hole!"

_Shoot, a grenade... most likely._ I wasn't familiar with these terms, but I _was_ familiar with explosives, and that familiarity told me to get the _hell_ out of there as soon as possible. Scrambling to get to my feet, I didn't dare look back as I turned and tried to flee from the battle I'd found myself in, and _damn_ it all if I was going to _die_ in the next _hour_. This seemed all too likely for me as I ran, stumbling along the way. _Have to get out. Then I can think more clearly._

I was negatively surprised when I noticed a red laser dot on my lower back, and I let out an irritated mix between a sigh and a groan. _Great!_ Now I was sentenced to death here. Or, at least, I _definitely_ would be if that laser guide belonged to a sniper rifle.

Of course, as soon as I was sure I was going to die, the dot pretty much disappeared. Wherever it was now, it wasn't at least trained on my back. That, or it had been turned off and I really _was_ going to die.

~.x.~

Luckily, I didn't die yet. However, after many _more_ minutes of running, stumbling, and making sure I wasn't going to mindlessly run into some _other_ death trap, I slowed to a halt, panting and no longer paying much attention to my surroundings. Of course, by this point, if anyone were to try killing me _now_, not even adrenaline would've be able to save me from a rather untimely demise. That is, to say, I had likely been screwed over _big_ time, and I fully well _knew_ it.

Which was why I groaned upon seeing an aircraft land a few twenty-some meters away from me. _Great, just great._ I backed up a little, glancing at the craft for a moment before glancing around once more. Maybe this was pushing it, but _maybe_ I could force one last getaway... again, this was a maybe, but a very _strong_ maybe. All I'd have to do is turn around and make a run for it, and hope for the...

_...best._ My face fell when I felt cold metal hands grab my wrists, and I winced, squirming slightly. I managed to glance over my shoulder to see a dark purple robot _{at least, it __**looked**__ like a robot}_ that looked uncannily like me. Actually, I saw two of those robots, and I blinked. They didn't look like they were going to _kill_ me... especially since the butts of their guns were aimed at my _neck_. "What the..." I started to murmur, before I cursed under my breath. _Shit shit shit. So much for running..._

The 'robo-Wardens' allowed me to weakly struggle for a moment before roughly, but still carefully, striking the lymph nodes in my neck. Within moments, I was out stone cold.

~.x.~

I woke up quite a bit later in a dark room, and I was very quick to try moving, but this didn't turn out so well. I muttered darkly under my breath, wincing; I'd been tied to some chair. My wrists and ankles were bound, and my knees and elbows were also bound uncomfortably to the legs and the back of the chair, respectively. They seemed to be like rather strong and thick cords, but it still chafed my skin. Rather, the skin that could be chafed.

As I continued my efforts to _wriggle_ my way free _{after having found that I simply couldn't shrink and escape __**that**__ way}_, I could barely hear the sound of footsteps, and I blinked, trying to get a better look; and failing, because the room was still dark. After a few minutes, the steps gradually getting a little louder, a door swung open. Despite the fact that I was struggling, I could see that it was a male human, wearing some kind of cape, and looked like he had glasses that looked amberish in color for a split second before the door closed and the light disappeared again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the newcomer spoke, and I could hear the sound of some other chair moving. I noted that the voice sounded strangely like my own, except noticeably lower in tone. This was starting to become odd already. However, I forced that to the back of my mind. One way or another, I'd get the information I wanted.

"What, do you _expect_ me to not struggle when I'm _bound_ to a chair?" I was quite irritated right now. Things hadn't been going well for me for the past few hours, but _hell_ if I was going to _cooperate_ with some guy I couldn't even see!

For some reason or another, the other laughed for a second about this before regaining his cool demeanor. "No, but not when you could potentially be electrocuted, either."

I sniffed sharply. "Some electric chair _you've_ got, then." When no reaction came from the other - and I wasn't electrocuted - I did my best to fidget, continuing on, "Look, all _I_ want to know is what the hell's going on here!"

"And then that makes two of us. Tell me what I want to know, and I think we'll get along _just_ fine..."

I unwisely decided to speak up once more. "Oh, I see, I'll help _so_ much because I was _there_. Look, I don't have the answers you wa-" Without warning, surges of electricity ran through me, and I failed to keep silent, yelping before falling silent for a moment before I hissed, yelling as well, which was a little surprising, given that my muscles were locking up.

Eventually, the pain came to stop abruptly, and this time I kept my mouth shut, much as I would've loved to _talk_ my captor to death, and instead settled for glaring at him. It? I wasn't sure, but anyway, I wasn't stupid. Especially since I was now shaking since my nervous system had been screwed up a little.

"Actually, I think you _do_. You answer my questions, and maybe I'll consider answering yours. Fair enough?" I could practically _feel_ that the other was grinning, which, while strange, I ignored.

Reluctantly, I sank into the chair, frowning. "Fine. Ask away." Honestly, I didn't like the sound of this at _all_, but I really didn't have any other choice, so far as I knew.

"What year is it?" The other asked, and I blinked. _What?_ The older-sounding male tacked on, "And we're recording, by the way."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What kind of question is _that_? Not to mention that I don't _know_..."

"It's the year 2025. Now what exactly were you _doing_ in the midst of battle?"

I frowned. I didn't really want to risk lying, but... what the hell was this guy after? "Running away? I didn't exactly _mean_ to throw myself in the middle of a conflict that's not _my_ problem, for your information. Stupid machine...!"

There was a pause, and I instantly started berating myself for letting such an important piece of information _slip_. After a little bit, my captor spoke up once more. "You... didn't happen to use a _time_ machine... did you?" I noted that the other sounded quite apprehensive. But again, this was ignored.

"What? How did you..." I fell silent, shaking my head. This was crazy. How did he know? However, I opted to answer now. I didn't want to be shocked again, really. "... yes... I did. What of it?" _Everything, probably,_ I thought sarcastically.

The other cursed under his breath, and I barely heard him mumble, "Oh, _wonderful_. So much for hoping I had captured a civilian instead..." After a moment of silence, he continued on in a louder voice, "Then it's just as I thought. Wonderful, _just_ wonderful..." He didn't sound terribly enthused, I noted, but I didn't ask anything yet, but my eyebrows were raised. This was... different. Then again, neither of us seemed pleased with this new situation. There was a sigh from the still-muttering male. "I'll explain one thing to you right now... _Warden_," he sounded vaguely unsure, but seemed to ignore the pause and resumed, "We're essentially the same person. Well, not even essentially, we _are_ the same. You haven't figured that out yet... but... never mind that." I heard a snap of the fingers, and the lights came on.

From that moment, there was a bout of silence. Think of it like looking into a mirror, but neither really liking what they saw. I was really quite intrigued by this, seeing that I'd been face to face with my future self this whole time. And it _was_ myself, no less; we shared the same physical traits, mostly. The other's skin was a bit darker, and the lenses of the glasses were now an amberish color, and save for a few obvious things, we otherwise looked quite the same, though the older male appeared to be much more calm than I probably was. As I noticed - and decided to pay a little bit of attention to - the other Warden's _{well, I didn't quite believe we were __**really**__ the same person yet, but it __**was**__ really hard to fake a gap in the teeth, so...}_ manner of clothing had moved away from the bright, noticeable colors to more neutral blacks with accents and a purplish cape. And really, _really_ tall boots; about a little shorter than knee length. Important, _no_, but _highly_ noticeable.

No pun intended, of course. After a moment of deciding exactly _what_ words to use, I spoke up, frowning slightly. "What. The. _Hell_."

The room fell silent again, and the older Warden - I wasn't sure what to call 'older me' quite yet - broke the aforementioned silence with a sigh, and he idly rubbed his gloved hands together. "Alright. I'll go ahead and untie you." He slipped over to behind the chair I was bound to, getting to work on untying the thick knots. After a minute or two, he stood up, tossing a communication device on my lap. I was still extremely confused, though, and I didn't know what to make of any of this.

I twisted around, eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Hey, what...?" It was drawn out longer than I meant to, but by that time, the other had already started walking towards the door.

"Take a look around the... the _jail_ before you contact me. We'll discuss some matters then. Just... stay out of the way. I don't want you to screw anything up. Not yet, anyway." There was silence, and we both stared at each other for a moment before the older shook his head, muttering under his breath once more, and walked out of the room.

I blinked, standing up and massaging my elbow with a vague wince, holding the device in my free hand. "Al_right_, then..." In a considerably quieter voice, I murmured rather unenthusiastically, "I suppose it _did_ work... even if I _did_ get _catapulted_ forward some fifteen years... _great_."

No, I was not at all enthused by this. Not at _all_.

_{.end of chapter 1.}_

-your Warden


	2. There's such a thing as overexplaining

{.chapter o2.}

and not a whole hell of a lot was said - or done

_Sunday, June 15th, 2025; the day on which virtually everything and nothing was explained to me_

So I ended up exploring the jail - it was Superjail-ish, more of an offshoot of it, as far as I could tell, and this made sense, also judging from the fact that future me didn't exactly approve of this jail - and, might I mention, I did an _extremely_ good job of staying out of the way. Surprisingly enough. I thought that such a simple-sounding task would be _much_ more troublesome and complicated, but actually... I stayed on the metaphorical/figurative sidelines very well.

Come around midnight or so, and I came to a stop somewhere near... oh, what's it called... oh, right. The Future Warden's _{that's what I've come around to calling 'future me' - mainly because I'm __**just that creative**__, partly because it sounded good in my head at the time, and still does}_ office, and I placed myself by the door, leaning against the wall and digging through some of the inner pockets of my tailcoat for the communication device. Comm unit? Whatever. I knew it was going to be my only best friend for a while, though. Glancing around, I searched around the databanks before finding a private link to Future Warden's communication device.

The screen automatically changed from the linking screen to a dark screen, but I could see a few things - I couldn't really distinguish what an object was, but I could definitely tell that objects were there; it was just freakishly dark. "Uh..." I bit my lip, thinking. He must've been sleeping, I was sure of that much, even if I couldn't see anything. Thus, I started to experiment a little bit. "Future Warden? Are you there?" Near-instantly, I decided that wasn't going to work. I thought I knew myself well enough to know how to _properly_ wake myself up - by being as annoying as possible. So, I started that up. "Hey! Warden! Wake up! You said there were things to be discussed!" I barely heard an irritated growl, and I contemplated speaking again until I heard Future Warden mutter something - it sounded like _'give me a fucking second'_, but I could be wrong - and I heard something clatter on the ground, presumably the communication device, because the screen shook about. However, the screen got a little brighter, but it was still fairly dark. At least I could see.

On the screen, a visibly irritated Future Warden stared back at me, his mouth drawn into a thin line, tips curled downwards slightly, and his eyes glaring tiredly at me. He wasn't wearing his amberish glasses, and from what I could tell, I really _had_ just woken him up. If it wasn't obvious in the way he was glaring at me, it certainly was regarding his appearance. "Arright, what the _hell_ do you wa- _oh._ I remember." He sounded like he was having a hell of a time enunciating his words, but at least he was comprehensible. "I'll send the location of your quarters to you. But what the _hell_ were you _thinking_?" I shrugged, smiling innocently, and he groaned. "Never mind. Sent. Meet Jared an' I in my office tomorrow morning, zero nine hundred. I might be able to talk intelligibly then."

I blinked. "Huh?" I raised one eyebrow, but at that point, the Future Warden smirked slightly, waving me off.

"_Night_, see you then!" He grinned before closing the link, and I stared at the blank screen for a while, frowning.

"What the hell?" I hissed, and I stared at it for a while before sighing and looking for the location that Future Warden had sent me. I furrowed my eyebrows. "Oh. I haven't been over _there_ yet... huh."

~.x.~

I found myself waking up sometime later in the morning, and hoping that everything that just happened had all been just a _really_ bad dream. Or if not bad, just really weird. My mind _was_ crazy like that... alas, when I opened my eyes and actually _glanced around_, I found that no, I was _still_ in the bleak stone room that I'd never heard of until a few _hours_ ago. And _then_ my mind figured that, hey, _maybe_ I was in another one of those dream with in a dream within a dream things, but I realized that this made _far_ too much sense to be a dream. Unless that makes it a dream for me, but I kind of doubt it.

...oh, if _only_ I couldn't logic my way out of fantasies. I'd be so, so, _so_ much happier. Probably.

I frowned, shaking my head as I sat up, and I reached over, picking up my tailcoat and putting it on, muttering unintelligible phrases under my breath. What time was it? Didn't the Future Warden want to see me at... nine? _Wait a minute..._ After about _that_ amount of time, I actually ended up _finding_ a clock, and I had the appropriate panic attack.

Mainly because if I knew myself well enough, I wouldn't be pleased with something going a little... _badly_. I.e., I was going to be _seriously_ late. _Not_ good. The only reason I was cursing myself was because it was about 8:56 a.m.

So, I was very much beyond hope. I knew that, but even so, it didn't stop me from _thinking_ I could save myself. Maybe. Probably not, given that I still didn't know my way around. But, none of this was going to drag me to the Future Warden's office, so I quickly opened the door and rushed out, top hat in hand.

~.x.~

I slid to a halt in front of the door I was looking for, and as I would've expected, it needed a password. _Well, hell,_ I thought irritably, _I hope future me didn't change the code in fifteen years._

It didn't even _occur_ to me that I could just open the door.

Anyway, the password was still the same, and only _milliseconds_ after the fact, I heard laughter - presumably, _at_ me - from the other side of the door. Rolling my eyes indignantly, I opened the door and stepped inside the office, folding my arms across my chest in a fairly defensive manner. Sitting at the desk was the Future Warden; beside him was... Jared?

_What's he doing here? And why does he have an eyepatch?_ I also wondered briefly why the hell he looked so calm, because I was used to _my_ Jared freaking out 24/7... and _not_ holding a sniper rifle. I don't care if it was holstered! I... I was rightfully afraid!

God, I hate the future already.

The Future Warden looked up, eyes unimpressed, but he stated in a nonchalant but blank tone, "_You're late._"

I frowned, not moving forward, and replied in kind. "That I am." _But at least I came!_ After a brief pause, I raised my eyebrows and finally asked, "So, by 'discuss'... why did you want to see me?"

"_Well_, for many reasons. Just get over here. Jared and I can explain. Most of it, anyway..." Having little choice, I sighed, shrugged, and obeyed, walking over to the desk. The older Warden promptly smoothed out what looked like a map of the world on his desk, and I watched curiously. "So, tell me. When you found yourself in the middle of that battle... over... over... where is it?" The Future Warden glared at the map before his eyes widened, and he pointed at a tack close to the eastern North American coast, glancing up at me for a moment before returning his attention to the tack. "There, right there! Not that it mattered where, but still. Now... who do you think we were fighting against, Warden? Take a wild guess, if you have to."

"The Twins?" I asked in response, shrugging and half-smiling, and this was met with uneasy snickering from Jared and a blank stare from the Future Warden.

"..._no_. The Twins are on my side. They've been very helpful, not to mention, because they haven't tried screwing anything up on purpose. Yet." The Future Warden pressed his fingers together, frowning, and opened his mouth to speak, but Jared was more than willing to tell who they were fighting against.

"We're currently fighting against the rebels. Surprisingly enough, they're somewhat skilled with combat. Which is why we haven't wiped them out entirely by now."

There was another pause, and the Future Warden opened his mouth again, looking vaguely irritated, but then shook his head. "...yeah. Thanks, Jared." He looked like he had forgotten what he was going to say for a moment, but then he seemed to remember. "So. That's where you come in. That's where you cause more than a few problems."

I forced myself to keep calm. It wasn't going to help if I lost it right now. Later, sure, but _not_ in front of my future self... and Jared. Oh, if he was here right now, I'm pretty sure he'd laugh at the cruel irony I was up against right now. Even crueler that I've mentioned him this early _{Jared, I really really hope you're not reading this. Private thoughts, __**please**__?}_. I planted my right hand on the desk carefully, leaning forward, and pointed at the other with my left hand. "A, hahah, _few_ problems," I replied, smirking just slightly, though I wasn't entirely pleased by the connotation. "Define _problem_."

"By problem, I mean... agh!" He shook his head, and he glanced up at Jared. He paused, frowning. "...smartass," he muttered, and finally spoke up in a louder voice, "Jared, I'll explain the situation to our clueless _friend_."[/b][/color]

The sniper smiled and nodded knowingly. "Of course, sir."

I still didn't like the way he talked about me, but then again, it wasn't like I should have really expected that we'd like each other right away _{even if I do kinda secretly admire some of the facts about my future}_. The older Warden stood up and tapped me lightly on the shoulder - I stiffened up visibly, due to my apparent terror involving temporal anomalies, which I thought Future me should've understood _{but... apparently __**didn't**__}_, and so I ended up causing a very brief wave of confusion before I pushed myself up, glancing at the Future Warden with a curious gaze.

He only stayed silent, motioning me over to the door before slipping out into the hall, and with a vaguely irritated sigh, I followed him, closing the door. I rushed to catch up with him, and when I did, the other seemed to be thinking. After a moment, the Future Warden spoke up. "I'm not sure what's more of a problem, actually - that you're here, or that we have no way to send you back. Not for quite some time, anyway."

I decided to hold my tongue and say more or less what other me would probably like to hear, if only because I didn't want to die due to stupidity just yet. "No time machine, I take it?" I cautiously asked, and the other nodded.

"Yes. I got rid of it years ago. Well..." It dawned on him - but not on me, of course - that what he'd said now made little sense. So, he shook his head slowly, correcting himself. "_I_ did. I decided it would be too dangerous, too risky. _You_ obviously didn't. You must have been drunk or something."

"Nope, I was perfectly sober," I replied, and the Future Warden bit his lower lip, looking exasperated.

"I said _'or something'_, didn't I?" He retorted, still looking exasperated, and he frowned, sighing. "_Anyway_... the point is, despite the fact that I don't have a time machine right _now_, not to mention that you came at an inconvenient time, I still have the schematics for the time machine. The, mm, _more perfected_ version of it, I'd believe? Unless, due to your screwing with just about everything, I now have the... worse version of it?"[/b][/color]

"Don't look to me for any answers. I don't know. So far, not a whole hell of a lot has changed _yet_, right? We at least have the plans for it, regardless of how well it works... and besides, you don't get the situation..." I was quickly realizing that I should really just shut up, but at least the Future Warden didn't really want to kill me yet. At this rate, it seemed like he'd rather shoot himself before pointing a gun at me. Well, and that was only a 'for now' thing, too. Things could still change.

"Warden, we _all_ know that I'm not the only one who doesn't 'get the situation'. Hell, I think there are still a few people here who don't even _know_ about the situation. And I think I know that deep inside, your brain's imploding in on itself with the paradoxes we've been talking about for the past few minutes." He pursed his lips for a moment before looking at me again. "So if you have nothing to contribute, just..." He paused, staring me in the eye before rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "Forget that. However, the problem is, I already _have_ quite a few things to attend to. The war, for example. You, as another example. Ultraprison, as a third example. Plus, even if I _do_ have the schematics, I don't have the materials. All of that is in Superjail."

"_Okay_..." I frowned, and I glanced away for a moment. "So, speaking of the war, why isn't it as worldwide as I thought it would be? As it _should_ be?"

"Ah, that. Well..." The Future Warden frowned, pressing his gloved fingers together. "Taking over, say, the world, will take a while. Especially since I already have to defend Superjail and the subsidiaries around it from the rebels... the ones who don't want to be incarcerated. But they don't understand." He shrugged, his eyes staring off into space now. "I don't plan on incarcerating _everyone_. Not _yet_, anyway. I rethought the plan, made it more... feasible. Reasonable, too." He sighed, shaking his head slightly, and forced himself back into reality. I, myself, was a little confused. Especially since he seemed to be talking more to himself now, rather than answering my question.

Then again, maybe I caught him having one of his _really_ good days. I'm not sure. Either way, though... I shrugged, and glanced over at the older Warden, who was silent but still walking. "So, uhm... since I'm _here_..." Hmm. I didn't even know what to say. Odd. "I might as well make myself useful, at the very least." _Even if I don't really want to be. Since I don't know anything, obviously, and since I don't trust you._ "Which means...?"

"Oh. Yes. Right." Well, at least me talking brought him completely back into the world. It was starting to become a little awkward, not that it hadn't been way before. "I'll take a guess and say you know next to nothing about weaponry and the like besides the _barest_ of basics. Maybe how to reload and _shoot_ a gun, how to throw a hit, the like, but nothing really... advanced, more helpful when the situation calls for it, the knowledge. Am I right?"

I was still somewhat musing over the fact that it was weird having a long-winded conversation with myself, but still, I was listening. "Well, yes. I don't know how to fight... _well_, at any rate."

"Then we'll have to work on some training for you, won't we? Not that I should say this, but... you can't really break any weapons in the span of a few minutes... right?" The other smiled nervously - probably one of the first real emotions I'd seen in him for the first time... ever, I think - and I smirked, glancing away.

"I wouldn't count on that..." I guess not a whole hell of a lot could be said for that, though. I held up my hands, looking at him innocently, and then I regained my neutral expression, folding my arms across my chest once more. "Nonetheless..."

The Future Warden also seemed to regain his cold demeanor rather quickly, and sighed. "That is all. I find little else worth mentioning to you. Later. We'll go through the basic combat training tomorrow, Jared and I still have plenty of our own battle plans to discuss."

I raised an eyebrow as the other suddenly turned on his heel and marched off to his office, and I tilted my head. _Strange. I already have a bad feeling about the entire thing. Something's going to go wrong._

_{.end of chapter 2.}_

-your Warden


	3. Trying too hard, too

{.chapter o3.}

logic finally throws a sharp object in the direction of yours truly

_Monday, June 16th, 2025; the day on which I realized 'oh shit, this really __**was **__a bad idea'_

I hate so-called 'gut feelings'. I get them a lot and they seem to be right 75% of the time...

Anyway, for the rest of that day, I tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut. The day had been remarkably uneventful; I met future Alice and Jailbot _{Well, technically, Jailbot __**X**__, and he's the only one who has a little difficulty separating me from the Future Warden, but it's nice to have someone who kind of cares about your existence, regardless of if said 'someone' is a robot}_ and then carried on. There, like I said, wasn't a whole hell of a lot for me to do, so I mainly stayed holed up in my quarters and tried to stay alert.

Just in case, you know. I had the general feeling that it was better safe than sorry here.

That being said... in the name of being 'safe or sorry', I forced myself to drink a few pots of coffee straight. Don't ask how I made the coffee - I'm not entirely sure either. So... onto what's extremely integral to the story, or at least this chapter: black coffee tastes really, _really_ bad. I'm not even sure if it was black coffee. Point is, it had a helluva lot of expresso and tasted _really really_ bad. _Extremely horrible_. I'm not completely sure why I even drank it, buuuut...

...like I said, it was integral to my survival.

Of course, I was unable to even close my eyes and was quite jittery. It didn't help that I would otherwise be sleeping, but I guess I was so hyped up on caffeine that I don't think I even cared at that point. Anyway, the rational-er part of my brain _knew_ that at the end of this, I was going to have a crash even worse than a hangover. Or. Well. You know.

So, while I was on my caffeine hype, I decided to keep everyone sane and instead pace around my quarters impatiently. I felt sick; the gut feeling I'd tried to ignore was still there, sinking ever farther down in my stomach. I guess it didn't help that I constantly felt like I was going to vomit, either. Nonetheless, I _knew_ something was going to happen. I just didn't know _when_. That... bothered me, to say the very least.

~.x.~

I was still awake by 1:12 in the morning. By this point, I was starting to think that the black coffee was _barely_ okay. Which probably meant I had drank _far_ too much caffeine in one sitting. Oh well. I at least still thought it was disgusting. I didn't _want_ to drink it. But still. I had just gotten another fresh cup of black coffee and my hype was just starting to wear off, but no longer! 'Cause I was having another cup of coffee.

After having downed half of the cup, the communication device shook, and I picked it up immediately, starting to shake quite a bit now. "F-Future Warden? W-w-what i-is it?"

I eyed the screen, and Future Warden looked vaguely disappointed, sighing. "Well, I was going to tell you to follow me, because I'm standing in front of your door and have been pounding on the door for the past minute. What the hell's going on?"

"U-uhm, I was d-drinking coffee. B-black. A-and I was... out o-of it. K-kind of. Sorry. What i-is it-t?" I faked a smile, and the older Warden frowned.

"We have about half an hour before the rebellion gets here. I need you to come with me so I can at _least_ get us in the standard armor and get some weapons. _Please_ get out here. Dammit."

I stood up, shaking my head. "S-sure. I'll b-be right out."

As soon as I opened the door, closing my link, the Future Warden pursed his lips as he looked at me, and he seemed vaguely... amused? I wasn't sure. I knew very well how I looked like right now, though; pale, dark circles under the eyes, shaky, and not exactly well. I blame the coffee. After a moment, the older Warden sighed and spoke. "Before we go... _how_ many cups of coffee have you had?"

Right about then, a loopy grin started to appear on my face. That's right, I react to my black coffee as I do to my alcohol - _badly_. "_C-cups_? What're y-you talking about? I've h-had _pots_! T-three or four n-now, I think!"

The other looked rather surprised, eying me again, before sighing, massaging his forehead. "Annnd _that_ would explain why you're now loopy and everything in this area smells like bitter coffee." He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me forward forcefully before letting me go. "Anyway, come on, follow me. I'll suit you up in some armor and get you the standard weapons. This wasn't exactly how I planned teaching you, but... it'll do."

"P-plus it sh-should acquaint me with t-the enemy, right?" I tacked on, and the other was already walking off. "_H-hey_!" I ran to keep up with the other, and saw that the other was smirking just slightly.

Well, I wasn't sure if I should be irritated or not. "_Exactly_. I'm glad you're picking up the situation this early."

I raised an eyebrow at this. What the hell was he talking about? Situation, sure, but... what, had he dealt with this before? With... past mes? Or was I seriously over-thinking this? I went with the over-thinking option; he had been surprised to see me the first time, no doubt, irritated, yes, but still, surprised. He hadn't expected me. If he had, then I would be thinking that he'd done this before.

...I'm still certain that the only reason I was over-thinking this was because I had all that caffeine. Nonetheless, though, I should've really been focusing on being... well, focused. I was going to _kill_ someone today.

I had to at least make sure I could do it.

~.x.~

In some room somewhere in the subsidiary _{don't ask me where; I have no __**clue**__}_, I was figuring out the armor of the typical Superjail soldier, and it wasn't _that_ complicated. I mean, it kind of was, but still. It wasn't quite as I'd suspected - the soldiers weren't robots, it was just that this armor was highly protective... and flexible, I noted. Despite the fact that it was made of metal, it was actually pretty light but sturdy, much to my surprise. It could probably take quite the battle and still be... in one piece, albeit a little dented and such.

I'd already gotten the weapons. Well, technically, there were only two; there was the gun with a bayonet _{anyway, I'm pretty sure the gun's a rifle of some kind, but still, what do I know?}_, and then some dagger/knife... fine, _blade_, something that cuts into flesh. You get the point, right, why waste time going over technicalities?

The Future Warden spoke up as I was busy hooking my armor together. "If it makes you feel any better about this, I'll be accompanying you out of sheer necessity. If you die, everything is going to go to hell." He hadn't put on the helmet, and set it down as he neared me, some kind of microchip on his hand. "Hold still for a moment, I need to put this in..."

On command, I grew very stiff, straightening my back even more than it already was _{if that was even __**possible**__}_, and the Future Warden rolled his eyes, but said nothing as he flicked open a compartment in my armor, and slipped the tiny microchip inside a 'pocket' that it apparently was supposed to go into, and he closed it. Still remaining very stiff, I cautiously asked, "Let me guess; tracking device?"

"Mmhmm." He secured the lock on the compartment. "There. Just _follow_ me and don't run too far away. We need to get on the transportation aircraft before the alarms sound."

"R-right..." I stammered, feeling my confidence about the whole battle draining again. The bad feeling I'd had disappeared for a moment before coming back even worse than before. I clasped my hands together as I followed the Future Warden, frowning behind the metal of my helm. _Please let my gut feeling be wrong, please let my gut feeling be wrong...!_

~.x.~

We got on the aircraft a few minutes before the alarms sounded, and I fidgeted nervously while the Future Warden made a last-minute call to Jared. The other soldiers were either pouring in or had already been there, but we weren't noticed. Which was good; I was way too unsure about the situation to actually deal with anybody.

"Jared? _Jared_? _Jaaaareeed?_ Jared! I'm waiting..." _Huh. We get impatient in about the same manner, polar opposites or not,_ I idly noted. "Jared, where _are_ you? We have a change of plans!" The older Warden pursed his lips, eyes narrowing, but after a moment he looked less annoyed.

"Sorry, sir. I noticed you were gone; what's the new plan?"

"I'm sending the Warden to the battlefront, and I'm going with him. I don't think there should be many changes; I just figured I should alert you." He shrugged, and made some kind of gesture - couldn't tell what - and smiled.

"Well, good luck then, sir?"

The small smile on the other's face seemed to falter. At least I wasn't the only one having a bad feeling about the whole thing. "Heh, thanks, Jared." He paused, and the Future Warden seemed to think for a moment before tacking on in an unsure manner, "Though I have a feeling we'll need more than luck."

Uhm, bad idea or not, I think _some_ fake confidence from the older Warden would've been _really_ helpful right about then. We both thought we were pretty much screwed all ready, not that I liked the idea much myself. But _I_ at least had a bit of a sense of self-preservation. Oh, irony. I know this is a bad idea and I'm going to do it anyway. Wonderful, _just_ wonderful.

It was at that point I decided to pace around, lips pulled back into a frown and eyebrows furrowed with slight distress for a few minutes before I looked up at the Future Warden, hoping that I looked irritated as opposed to distressed. "Remind me _why_ you dragged me into this again?" I almost winced at the sound my voice; it was a little higher than usual, just enough to be noticeable, and _barely_ quivering _{I quickly blamed the coffee; muscular tremors, you know, there was no way in __**hell**__ that I, the Warden, was __**scared**__!}_, and I was probably the only one in the ship concerned about the whole thing.

The Future Warden feigned a knowing smile - at least, I'm pretty sure he feigned it, but then again, I could've misinterpreted it because I was far too busy thinking about _other_ things - and the older male seized me by the tubes connecting my armor to my helmet and dragged me over to him. "I dragged you into this because one, it was convenient, two, you need to learn the skills one way or another, and three..." He grinned, making me feel promptly even _more_ uneasy. _God __**damn it**__, Future Warden!_ Maintaining the grin, he shrugged. "...why the hell _not_?"

I frowned and folded my arms across my chest, somewhat irritated with this reasoning. "...because it's _convenient_. Pfft." Yeah, that was _perfectly_ sound reasoning! I fidgeted slightly.

"I doubt anything major can go _wrong_. So long as you don't do anything idiotic, we should be fine." He smirked slightly, even more so when I appeared even more irritated with this.

"If _I_ do something idiotic? That's ridiculous! What if _you_ screw something up by yourself, hmm?" I wasn't sure if he was trying to make me feel calmer or something by _trying_ to piss me off, because I wasn't really nervous for the moment, but the Future Warden was doing a _really_ good job of goading me into doing whatever right now.

"If _you_ screw up and die, everything goes to hell, or so I would assume. If _I_ screw up and die, it's not like anything horrible can happen. You do the math." He smiled, raising his eyebrows as if waiting for another challenge from me.

I wanted to oblige him. I really, really wanted to. So I did. "Then why not just keep me off the battle field?" I replied, raising one eyebrow and leaning forward, smirking slightly with my newfound knowledge.

The older man tensed up slightly before relaxing, still acting very smug, and didn't even grace me with a response, like as if _that_ answered everything. Frowning now and narrowing my eyes, I graced him with a mere _'pffft!'_ and tried to focus on anything but the spat I was to join in on.

~.x.~

By the time the transportation craft was about... oh, say, three-fourths _{and then some}_ of the way to the battlegrounds, I'd managed to shove back my uneasiness and at least try to feign being confident. I've never been directly responsible for the death of someone, and that kind of bothered me. Kind of. This was definitely going to be... _different_, at best.

Trying to keep my mind blank, I put on the helmet, connecting the tubes, and almost freaked out upon noticing that I couldn't see anything. However, the helmet seemed to 'boot up' and after a few minutes, there was a HUD display. Which was strange, not what I was expecting, but hey, I figured it could be helpful. Damn. I was having a minor case of the 'why couldn't I think of that earlier' thoughts.

...damn future me being so damn brilliant...

"Warden! Were you even listening to me?"

I glanced up to see the Future Warden glaring at me impatiently, and when I actually made eye contact, he rolled his eyes. "...no. What were you talking about, and why should I care?"

"We were talking about how to keep you alive. I'm sure you love to breathe. And have your heart still beating. Right?" He wasn't glaring at me anymore, but he still looked frustrated nonetheless. I glanced away for a moment, frowning and folding my arms across my chest.

"Yes, I do love being alive..." I replied slowly, almost warily. "Look, just tell me what it is you want to say already. If you have a plan to keep me as safe as one could possibly be in the middle of combat, I'll listen."

"We're just going over the plan one more time. That's the safest plan, not to mention. Ideal, no, but safe..." He was about in mid-sentence when I decided to interrupt him.

I raised a hand quickly. "Your logic is still flawed there," I interjected, pointing at him. "But go on."

The Future Warden stared at me with an even more irritated face before sighing, shaking his head. "As I was _saying_, the plan is simple. If we're lucky, we won't have to go through the entire battle. We can just hold them off, and the jails will take care of the rest. I have my own plan I need to follow-" I almost interrupted once more, but figured that he would rather beat me to death with my spine if I did, and remained silent. "-and thus, your plan is the same as mine. Just follow me, help me fight off any of the rebels, and if I have to save your ass, _I will_. Even if I don't really want to."

"Wait, wait wait, hold on!" I shook my head, trying to make sense of my older self. "You mean you _worked_ yourself into this crazy plan _willingly_?"

He stared at me like as if _I_ was the one acting strange, but then also with a mix of a vaguely condescending _'are you really that dumb'_ look. "Of course. I'm still fairly useful." He paused for a moment, and then it looked like something had just dawned on him, and he frowned, glaring over to his right. "Aw, damn!"

"What, did you just realize I completely skewer all of your plans?" I replied, voice dripping with sarcasm, and the other frowned more deeply.

"No, I just made a few wrong decisions. Nothing that will make a difference..." After sighing, he slipped his head into the headgear, connecting the tubes, and when it seemed that his helmet had... 'turned on', I guess, he turned his head to look at me. "...though I _will_ admit that I was... _you_ distracted me."

I couldn't decide if I should've acted surprised or not. Hadn't he been distracted by me _anyway_ because he was actually deciding to deal with me? Then again, who am I to dwell on technicalities? I readjusted my arms, deadpanning him with a, "And oh, what a surprise there."

Even from behind the helmet, I could tell that the other wanted to hit me. Okay, I could _at least_ understand that; if I were him, I would've wanted to punch me too.

"Just _never mind_ that!" He hissed, gesturing his hands about in the air wildly before folding his arms across his chest. "We'll be landing any minute now; get into position and follow my lead." He acted like he was about to walk off, but then he pressed a finger against my chest, face close to mine. "_Don't_ screw this up."

I leaned away, _barely_ flinching, and took a step back. "R-right. I understand. I'll try not to..." Of course, I'd been wondering how I'd tell him apart from the other soldiers, but that was when I realized that our armor was a different color than that of everybody else's; or, at least, his was, being black.

And again, I flinched when he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me with him, and once I'd realized what was going on, I glared at him, but allowed him to keep dragging me along, if only because I knew I couldn't walk like this. After being dragged a few rows back, a little near the middle, and we stopped right near the edges. After a pause - and as soon as the Future Warden had let go of my wrist _{ow. I think I can still see the bruise.}_ - I spoke up. "So, uh, I thought the battlefront was... in the front?"

"That would be the _front lines_, hence the term," He replied, voice sounding more and more strained, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes; apparently, he was as well. I'm still not quite sure how I knew, though. "Battlefront is a term akin to the battle _field_, which we're going to. Now shut up and wait for the ship to land."

...I decided to shut up and try to conserve the rest of my energy. I wasn't so pleased by the fact that my coffee hype was finally starting to wear off. According to the heads-up display in my helmet, it was 1:34 a.m. Big whoop. Maybe it was just me, but that sinking feeling - that made me feel like I wanted to vomit when I was drinking - was definitely back, and I was sure that sometime near my time in the battle, I'd have, for lack of a better, more eloquent way to put it, my _ass_ handed to me.

Or something. I kind of knew I was right, though. That being said, whether I was right or not, I was still going to shove that to the back of my mind. I mean, I wasn't going to let myself dwell on that thought. I've only been in the future for two or three days; there was no way in hell I was going to die right now!

...but it wasn't like I'd have any control over that. If anything, I should've started planning to become a ghost and haunt the Future Warden. That was the second-most logical thing to do; I'm sure there must've been a first-most logical thing, but hell if I can come up with it now.

Nor would I be able to come up with it later; the ship automatically came to a sickening halt, having apparently landed, and I gasped, having been surprised by the sudden landing. I readied my gun as the door slid open, and we started to march forward.

...so... let me say this first. The whole thing started fairly slow; I could still think. Eventually, though... I found that thinking was not allowed in battle, and I was more going on sheer instinct, which wasn't exactly _helping_, never having held a weapon before in my _life_ _{that, and my instincts are just horrible anyway, combat-wise}_. Plus, I didn't even know what the plan actually _was_.

It would've been nice to kind of know _anyway_, though.

As soon as we had gotten down the ramp, the Future Warden darted away from the troops, and I followed, firearm in hand, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see what I assumed was the rebellion; some of them had protective armor, but most of them were wearing 'armor' that could easily be sliced through. However, I couldn't see them very well, given that I was having to run after the other, and I... well... I knew that whatever he was planning on doing, it was a _bad_ idea.

Too bad I didn't have any choice in the matter.

I frowned as I stumbled slightly, and had been thinking irritated thoughts in the direction of the Future Warden. I would've _loved_ to know the god damned plan! That way, I could judge how crazy future me _really_ was. However, all of a sudden, I heard the Future Warden's voice. I really, _really_ don't know how. Or why. "Okay, so here's the plan. Our mission is more of a sabotage mission; the two of us are going to try to find where the rebels are, wipe out a few of them, and if we're lucky, we'll try to weaken their forces. How we'll do that, I'm not quite sure, but we'll figure it out."

Blinking, I asked, "Can you read my _mind_?" All of a sudden, I realized something - I couldn't hear him breathe.

I wasn't sure if I should panic or not. I heard him mutter - well, at least, I _think_ he muttered something; I wasn't so sure any more - something under his breath, presumably a curse aimed in my direction, and then he 'spoke'. "No. But you _have_ pestered me about the plan since before we got on the battlefield. Ugh... think something really hard in my direction."

Oooookay. I had no clue as to why he was telling me to do this. What, was there something... 'special'? I sure as hell couldn't tell. So, I tried to send the Future Warden angry brainwaves telling him that he was a moron, and more importantly, insane. We continued to run; there was no response for a little while, a few minutes at most, from the Future Warden. I glanced over to my left - a small squad of rebels had spotted us, but seemed to be holding off for the moment. _That's going to bite us later._

"...damn. I'm not getting anything from you; I think I forgot to install the telepathy module, or even bring it with me, when I came to get you. So, I say... well, _crap_."

I'm pretty sure my brain exploded when I heard that. _Wait, __**what**__?_ "So... I... ah, am I technically reading your thoughts?"

"_Technically_, I'm sending very strong and coherent brainwaves in your direction, which your helmet is intercepting and translating into an audio form with _my_ voice via two telepathy modules. You have the receiving module; I forgot to give you the sending one."

_Ohhh yeah_, my brain was _definitely_ exploding into teeny, tiny _bits_, and my neural connections _{and connective tissue}_ were barely keeping the little broken chunks of grey matter together. It didn't help that I feared we'd be under attack at any moment now, but the Future Warden seemed to know what he was doing... and at any rate, I was too baffled to string together a sentence to say anything _anyway_.

I nearly jumped when the Future Warden suddenly aimed his gun at the group of rebels I'd mentioned, and they were getting close - he pulled the trigger, and I raised my gun, but didn't quite let rip any bullets yet _{and I realized that I had no clue what to do if I ran out of ammunition; hey, it was possible}_. The other managed to kill two of the rebels by this point, and now they were fairly close; there was no way I could _possibly_ miss... well, so I _thought_.

Immediately, I tried to remain indiscriminate when it came to finally firing a few rounds, and I was rightfully surprised when I actually gunned down a few soldiers of my own. Okay, they weren't _really_ soldiers, but! Continuing on! On an unrelated note, I think I was more surprised that I'd killed someone while my caffeine rush was starting to wear off. Within a few minutes, the small group was dead.

Any nervousness I had about this I immediately choked back; for starting to come back down from my rush, I was actually doing... kind of good! Both of us, really, considering that we couldn't see very well anyway, since it was well near midnight now. Or, well, kinda close. Maybe an hour or so after midnight. I forgot.

...did I mention that?

...um. Anyway, my only form of 'congratulations for not dying right away' was a very quick tap on the shoulder, and I was already so freaked out that I nearly aimed my gun at the Future Warden before remembering that I wasn't going to kill him. For a millennia of reasons, really. I mean, who was going to save my ass if I did away with him? And then he was also more skilled than I was, than I could probably _ever_ be. Addendum: more than I could ever _hope_ to be.

Future Warden started to hurry off before stopping and glancing back at me. "Are you okay? We need to go!"

Again, I blinked, shaking my head slightly. "Fine, fine!" Quickly, I started to follow, glancing over my own shoulder. Okay, we weren't being followed. But we were too far away from the rest of the army, so... surely we'd be noticed?

Of course, that did mean that I was doubting the Future Warden's knowledge of the rebels, so maybe they were stupid and just weren't paying attention to us... but still, I at least had a point!

However, we were doing okay, I'll admit that much. There weren't too many rebels that were actually trying to kill us. That being said, though... well...

~.x.~

...uh. So. I lied. We were attacked a few times on the way to the... wherever we were going. Didn't he say that we were trying to find a rebel base? Well, that wasn't exactly hard. The closer we got, the more rebels who tried to kill us. That was _fun_.

No, of course I'm not being sarcastic! Whatever gave you _that_ idea?

The Future Warden and I slid to a stop behind some rubble, and I immediately dropped to my knees, panting. I could barely hear the other panting slightly as well, but he's done this plenty of times before, or so he'd have me assume. Hell if I knew, honestly. I shook my head, murmuring something quietly... presumably, just a few unintelligible phrases and sounds.

To my left, the Future Warden sighed before speaking. Er. Thinking very, very hard in my direction. "I think we're close. The procedure remains the same, but I advise utmost caution." Oh, yeah, like I'd actually do that. "Let's go. If we're lucky, we won't have to deal with any of the rebels."

I opened my mouth, wanting to protest, but I _almost_ gave up, sighing as well. "Right now? Isn't..." I frowned, staring down at the ground for a moment before looking back up again. At this point, I figured that I wouldn't be able to convince the other that maybe this was a bad idea. Really, though, my hype was very close to wearing off now, if it hadn't worn off by now already, and I _knew_ I was going to have quite the literal crash. Despite this, though, I knew about half the facts, and with that in mind, I forced myself to stand back up, albeit with a bit of stumbling. "Never mind. Let's just get this over with..."

The Future Warden nodded, seeming more pleased with this, and I could only be glad that I'd caught my breath for only a few minutes, but now I was back at this crazy plan. We ran around the pile of rubble - which, as I noticed, was _extremely_ convenient cover, but I didn't dwell too long on that fact - and out into the open again, and with a few well-placed bullets from the Future Warden, we took out some a few rebels heading out way. The ones that didn't get killed decided to try taking me out first, since I was the obviously less experienced one... trust me, it was easy to tell... but I barely managed to hack them apart with the bayonet. That was surprising, to say the least.

And, apparently, we had only been a few minutes away from the base. Again, it seemed unusually convenient for me, but at this point, I couldn't have cared less. The base was fairly small, but still quite _there_. The Future Warden and I noticed the place at the same time, but he spoke up first. "There it is! That was... easier than I thought it would be. They must've been low on forces."

"Hah, what do you know?" I wasn't sure if I was trying to mock him or if I was agreeing with him. He didn't really pay attention to my comment, though, so I guess it was better than any actual reaction.

Of course, we found that we were going to have a death wish if we were going to enter the base through the same way the rebels were leaving _{and why were there quite a few of them pouring out now? that's what __**I**__ wanted to know! and, unfortunately, I kind of had a sinking feeling that I knew what exactly the problem was}_ and so we circled around the base until we found a back entrance, because, according to the Future Warden, _'any self-respecting temporary base has a way in and a way out, and they're usually not the same and on opposite sides'_. Not that that made any sense to me.

That being said, it wasn't like I was making sense of anything at this point. I'd been completely missing out on some sort of 'loop' over here for about two, three, maybe four days now. Nonetheless.

We stopped by the door, and after a few moments, we carefully opened the door, looking inside. It _seemed_ safe enough, but still, I had paid attention to the rebel soldiers. There were far too many back here as opposed to the actual battle. "I don't like this plan," I whispered, hoping the other would be able to hear me, and after a 'why the hell not' moment, tacked on, "If I die..." I couldn't really finish the sentence, but the basic gist was that I was going to haunt him, end of the universe as we knew it or not. Besides, the other seemed to get my point, anyway.

After a few more moments, we cautiously wandered into the rebellion base. "We'll just destroy a few important objects in here. This is where we simply come up with something as we go along."

Oh, yes, an excellent plan! I'm still being completely not sarcastic!

Anyway, I guess I couldn't really blame him for the whole thing, but really, is it that hard to figure out what to destroy? Maybe we could've come here with some bombs, simply blow up the place, but _no_, so far as I know, we didn't bring any explosives with us! That didn't rule us out from using rebel bombs, though, but it wasn't like we knew where _that_ was either. Whoo.

With that in mind, we had started to search the room for anything potentially important and/or destructive, and neither of us had spoken. Well, not since the 'plan'. I'd also managed to keep from thinking about what could possibly go wrong, which was kind of new for me now, for the most part, and I had hardly noticed when the Future Warden had disappeared into some other room in the vacinity. And, after much extensive searching of the room - followed by a 'dammit' - I finally gave up on the idea that there might be anything back here, especially since I only _then_ realized that there probably wouldn't be anything destructive since what would the point of that be?

Just as I started to go further inwards, I froze up upon hearing some voices and footsteps. Quickly, I tried to talk to the Future Warden - if, that is, he could get my message. "Future Warden! Can you hear anything?" Right after sending that message, of course, I realized that the other would probably think I was freaking out and overall being paranoid and crazy.

Only a few moments later, as I was starting to back away, the Future Warden replied. "There's no one here, Warden, besides us."

I glared at the wall and muttered a few unintelligible phrases under my breath, frustrated, and after forcing myself to calm down even slightly _{look, if I was going to be jumped, I might as well know what the hell I should do as opposed to, well, losing my nerve at the last, or first, second}_, I started to disappear behind a doorway before I heard some guns cocking.

...oh, _hell_.

Absolutely unenthused now, I turned around, taking my gun and aiming it at the rebel. Then I realized that there wasn't one rebel; there had to be at least eight or nine of them. _Should I reiterate the 'oh, hell' thought?_ There was no way I could stand my own against a whole _group_ of enemies by myself, and unfortunately, the Future Warden had already dismissed the possibility, and so now I was going to pay for that.

On the other hand, at least I had pretty good armor! That meant I wasn't going to _die_. Well, um, that's at least how the theory goes.

After that brief, unusual pause, the trigger had been pulled and bullets were practically raining upon me, and after my vague panic attack - which is fairly normal if you're being shot at - and then I immediately determined that I wasn't going go down without bringing a few others with me. That, too, is a fairly normal response as well, if you think about it. For one thing, I was at a defensive advantage over them, and for another thing...

...where _was_ the Future Warden?

I forgot about his absence as soon as I started to shoot, the sudden kick of the weapon surprising me when, and I let out an irritated growl when I found that a piece of my helmet was now broken - left lens - and that they had found a few weaknesses in my armor.

I managed to ignore any pain as I let loose one string of bullets, managing to shoot one of the rebels near the jugular vein, and said rebel stumbled, gripping his neck and trying to slow and prevent the outward flow of blood, and another bullet made contact with my arm. I yelped, and I recoiled away, trying to take down another rebel.

I'd failed to notice the one who got away, and I'm not exactly sure how. That wasn't my concern, though. Maybe he was just scared.

Some of the rebels had started to get too close, and I used my bayonet to stab through one of the rebels' vulnerable chest, a little down below the sternum and a little to the right, coming at a bit of an angle, and quickly, after having gotten it in the flesh, turned sporadically to the left, bringing the blade with me, and I took it out before blocking a combat knife of the other enemy, before pushing forward and pulling the trigger. I missed, and the bullet ricocheted off of the wall it hit, but this did nothing, only landing on the ground seconds later. Now that the rebel was on the ground, I pulled the trigger again, managing to shoot and hitting his shoulder.

Of course, by now, I had plenty of my own injuries and was finally starting to feel it. I winced, moaning quietly as I continued to keep firing, and I heard _more_ new bullets, but this new stream wasn't aimed at me. Instead, as I found when I turned my head, I saw the Future Warden, who was now acting on his 'promise'.

I was actually pretty impressed with myself. For never having been in combat, I was actually doing pretty well, but I was starting to feel faint now, and I shook my head, blinking and taking a step back. The Future Warden was being fairly effective, shooting at the rebels and killing most of them and knocking out the remaining few, and he glanced over at me. "Warden, look at me. We need to get out of here, now!"

I did indeed look up, and replied as snarkily as possible, "Damn right we do." The words were a little slurred, but judging from my tone of voice and my emphasis, the point sitll got across pretty well.

As soon as he'd turned his back, I had started to try following, but all of a sudden, I felt something blunt hit one of my pressure points... one of my lymph nodes, I think... and I fell to the ground, my head landing a little roughly on the ground, and as my vision became black, I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing.

And then I heard a gunshot.

_{.end of chapter 3.}_

-your Warden


	4. Painful reminder of mortality is painful

{.chapter o4.}

there may be technical difficulties involved below this cut

_Monday, June 30th, 2025; the day on which I have a sudden boost in intelligence for a brief moment_

For what seemed like a long time, perhaps a week, I couldn't feel anything. If I could, I felt sharp twinges of pain, or merely pressure somewhere on my body. I was sure that I was dead, completely ignoring any and all forms of logic that said otherwise. Maybe I was in hell. Maybe death just wasn't nearly as exciting as religion made it out to be. Maybe, the left side of my brain argued, _I wasn't really dead_. Of course I ignored myself in that regard.

Either way, I felt like I was in some metaphorical limbo between life and death. Consciousness and unconsciousness. Waking up or lying in a stupor. Something kind of like that. So, putting it in those terms, I guess it wasn't very serious, but that was in hindsight. At the time, I was _positive_ that whatever had happened, I was most certainly dead and no one would bother resuscitating or reviving me. Which should've meant that I actually would've wiped the universe from existence and... yeah... time traveling _sucks_. Especially in the future.

Eventually, though, I seemed to be getting reacquainted with the idea of not being dead. I don't know when, just kind of... when I started to get glimpses of what the hell was going on. Most of the time, whatever was happening was actually pretty boring, and was probably why I couldn't maintain consciousness for more than a few seconds, but every now and then, I could hear someone muttering and feel someone injecting something into me, not that I'd be able to tell you what, but still, when I woke up, I found that no one was there and I was simply in a small, white room with medicinal equipment.

Not like I recognized the equipment at the time, either. But in a way, waking up and not knowing a thing is kind of surreal.

Gradually, I found myself being more alert for longer periods, and I finally got lucky - or had a sudden decrease in luck - when I happened to wake up when someone... I wasn't exactly sure who... happened to be in the same room.

As a side note, I have no clue if I was unconscious or in a coma or what. But if I was in a coma, I must've been in a really light coma, because according to the Glasgow coma scale thing... well... okay, okay, okay, if I were scaling my coma according to that, I'd probably in a light coma. My eye-opening was... random, at best, but I knew it had to have some kind of trigger, not that I knew what that would be, and for verbal response... hell if I knew, but I was definitely confused and disoriented. My motor response was probably bad, too. Not that I'd had the opportunity to test it out.

...annnyway... yes! Right! I was still quite out of it when I noticed the other, and blinked slowly, focusing my attention on him; I was pretty sure it was a him. "...zuh hell're you?" Despite how I wrote it down, it was more slurred than that _{which is amazing, really}_, but my confused gaze said more than enough. The other turned around, and I recognized him right away once I caught the amber color of the glasses. Future Warden?

Oh, of all the luck I could've possibly had...

I attempted to move, only to find that I really _couldn't_, and I frowned, glaring at the other... or trying to. The other merely raised his eyebrows, walking over to where I was, arms folded across his chest. "Oh, you're awake. I was wondering if you would." He spoke in a nonchalant tone of voice that freaked me out, and I tried to shrink back, but to no avail. He snickered quietly, picking up my wrist and taking off his glove, feeling my pulse for a moment before letting my hand drop. "Huh, your pulse is a bit weaker than I'd expect. But you'll get better, I assume."

"Hhn?" I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing up at my future self for a moment before trying to move my hand; I got it to twitch, but I figured I'd have to work on my motor control later. Suddenly, something in my mind clicked, and I did my best to make my words clear as I hissed at the Future Warden, "You are a _moron_!" I winced at the sudden twinge of pain again, and I sucked in a breath as the other seemed... amused?

Okay, actually, he seemed a bit more confused. "I don't understand." So I took that back. Confused, yes, amused, most certainly not anymore. But he could've been. I wouldn't have even known, honestly, but that's not my point.

I rolled my eyes just before noticing that everything was... not yellow tinted. Yes, I'd been conscious for possibly more than three minutes, maybe a bit less, and somehow I don't notice that my vision's different. I attempted to sit up, cursing under my breath as I settled for a sort of semi-semi-supine position, knees barely raised up above the rest of my body as I stared at the other with a face saying 'are you really that much of an idiot?'. However, I sighed, and decided to enlighten the older Warden. "_The telepathic headgear_. They were hacked, eavesdropped upon, whatever the _hell_ you want to describe it as. Our little 'plan' was discovered. Did you ever think of _how_ it could be used against us?"

The Future Warden winced slightly, possibly embarrassed or something before glancing away, popping his knuckles on his left hand. "...not really. It seemed... _generally_ fool and genius proof." He bit his lower lip for a split second before shrugging. "To me. I might know how someone listened in on us, but-"

I quickly cut him off, frustrated. "The receiving end of the telepathic device, the one I had, was picked up by radio signals, possibly by a few 'radios' whose sole purpose _was_ to pick up foreign conversations, relayed back to maybe a troop of soldiers waiting to respond to said radio, in which we were found out. Simple, nothing that can't be understood, or even _mis_understood, by someone like _you_." The tone of my voice became fairly accusing near the end, and the other's eyebrows seemed to relax before furrowing just the slightest bit, the lids of his eyes lowering a little bit as he also seemed to become slightly frustrated.

"I acknowledge and understand _that_. I completely know how that works, because I _designed_ it!" He let out an irritated hissing sound, the right corner of his lip turning down into a frown, and he looked vaguely disgusted. "So I didn't think ahead! Look, we came out alive, okay? Or at least you did, but my point is..." He folded his arms across his chest and shook his head slightly. "You'll have to stay in the infirmary for a while. I saved you from the Doctor; he wanted to test a few things on you. Things that might've sped up the healing, I think..."

"Oh, come on, what the hell?" I frowned, and I propped myself up on my elbows, letting my knees drop once more. "Why didn't you let him use it on me? Really, it might've been convenient."

"It needed refining, for one thing, and for another thing, what would it do to me? For all I know, I could end up _dead_!" He fidgeted with his hands in an agitated way as he walked away from the bed I'd been officially confined to and back, lips pursed.

I looked at the Future Warden, sighing. "Don't forget that it'd kill me, too. Where are my glasses?"

"I would still be dead," the Future Warden argued, and he folded his arms across his chest once again. "And anyway, your lenses were cracked when you got hit in the back of the head with a crowbar and your face collided with the ground." As if on cue, I managed to lift an arm and rub the back of my head, and winced when my fingers came across the area of impact. "Though I think I still have quite a few more copies of those glasses somewhere."

"Good. I'm going to keep pushing up glasses that aren't there otherwise." I just wanted something to bitch about now; I didn't really care _that_ much about my glasses. However, I frowned for a moment before sighing, forgetting that. "So how long am I going to have to stay here? I mean, it's not like I exactly have that long to stay here... you know... in the future..."

"Sure you do." The Future Warden, much to my surprise, sounded strangely upbeat, unlike how I thought the other should've been acted, and I frowned. "I don't know what's going on, but whatever happened, I'm still here and you're still here, and that means that this will work out. And hopefully, we can make the time machine and send you back to your own time."

"Yeah, and how are we going to do that?" Right now, I was still skeptical about the situation. Seriously, how were we going to make a time machine without any form of schematics? That would be kind of nice. It would've been even nicer if the Future Warden had had the brains to keep it _on hand_.

The Future Warden simply shrugged. "I don't know. I'll figure it out later. Right now I'm just far too busy thinking about all _kinds_ of other things. You wouldn't understand."

My yellow eyes hardened and grew harsh as I snapped, "Hey! I understand plenty of things, like that I'm apparently a problem, you're busy dealing with a war that hasn't even _started_ yet, and that I'm a helluva lot better than _you_! _I_ realized that the headgear was faulty!"

"Yes, but that was _after_ you awoke from your coma. I would be more impressed if you had told me while we were out _on_ the field."

"Shut up, you can't deny _that_ fact."

"You underestimate me. Of course I can."

I fell silent and settled for glaring at him some more; I wasn't sure why. Maybe I was trying to _glare_ him into submission. Really, I wouldn't have known. I was just extremely frustrated with my future self, kind of really wanted to harm him one way or another, and... well... you know how _that_ goes. But anyway, it didn't work. The other remained unfazed in my attempts to send strong brainwaves telling him to either go fuck himself or die. Or both. Of course I didn't realize the implications of the first option _{at the time, anyway; now I'm horribly red as I'm writing this}_, and at least the Future Warden couldn't read my mind _{so far as I know}_, because he'd never let me live that down. I think.

After a moment, though, folding my arms across my chest, wincing, and then resumed glaring at my future self. "_You can't deny that fact._" I wanted so badly to start having a tantrum of sorts when the other just barely grinned, the gap in his teeth showing slightly, and looked oh-so-smug... I met this with a straight-mouthed face. "I hate you. But really, how long do I have to stay here? At a _normal_ healing and recovery time?"

At this point, the Future Warden had turned and was studying some screens showing my vital signs and condition. "Oh, I'd say... since you're still biologically young, maybe only one more week. Your body already got a two week head start, technically."

I'm pretty sure I grew a bit paler than I already was, which was pretty impressive, honestly. "...but... but... wait, I thought I only got knocked out and slipped into a light coma?"

"You got a bit of a fracture in your right leg, it's healing up pretty well. The Doctor and I also had to remove a few bullets from your flesh, too, and that was just..." He shuddered involuntarily, face paler for a moment before it regained its usual color, and I'm pretty sure that he wasn't faking the vague disgust written all over his body, posture and all. "...I don't want to think about it. Eugh."

I grinned, despite knowing the fact that if I were him, I would be kind of weirded out having to take out my past self's bullet wounds. Actually, that was just plain creepy, but I tried to not think about it. And then it dawned on me that the Future Warden actually tried to help take out bullets. I closed my eyes and rested my head on the palm of my hand. _Aw, god._ Of course that was a bad thing; the person who I hated most, and whom I was pretty sure reciprocated those very same feelings, had helped heal me. Who knows what the hell he did to me? But I was in okay shape, for me, so... I don't know. "...that's great. Just perfect. Why would I think _any_ different?" I paused. "So, in that case, what's the plan?"

The Future Warden shrugged, rolling his eyes slowly as he thought, or pretended to think, anyway. "Don't know." This was said quickly, and he idly rubbed a hand against his forehead for a moment before he sighed. "When your leg's... nnn... not as broken, and we get a cast or a crutch or something, I'll try to inform you about our next few battle plans. I actually swiped a few things while we were at the rebel base a few weeks back... I just need to make a few counterattacks. I promise I won't put you on the front lines unless you really want to be."

Immediately, I replied, "_Noooooo_ thank you!"

He shrugged, raising both eyebrows, and observed the screens once more. "All right, that's settled, then. But you, Jared, and I will still need to talk about a counter-attack, since having a plan is seeming to be a very good idea now, especially since _you're_ here."

...oh yeah, you know that urge I had to strangle the Future Warden that dissipated for a few moments? Well, it was back again. If I didn't know I had a broken leg and couldn't move very well, I probably would've acted out on it until he, I don't know, _broke my arm_ with his better knowledge of combat. "And if I wasn't here?"

"We'd either all be dead or Jared and I would still be discussing counter-attack plans against the rebels. Preferably the latter." He looked like he was more interested in my vital signs and condition than what was actually being said, as evidenced by his gaze being directed towards the screens and his deadpan and nonchalant tone in his voice. After a moment, he glanced back at me, one eyebrow raised now as he sighed, and I only now noticed that he actually looked fairly tired, not that I would've known why.

Hell, I don't even know why I even _noticed_. I mean, I kind of hate his guts right now, right? _Right_?

I can't believe I'm even asking this. But still. More importantly, I can't believe I'm still thinking about it now as I'm writing. Oh well, though. I sighed, frowning, and glanced at my future self. "Well, you should probably go and think of those counter-attack plans, mmm?" After a very small bout of silence, I tacked on, "No, really. I'm not being facetious, not right now, anyway." I watched the other closely, and I fidgeted with my now-functioning hands. Without much warning, though, I yawned, bringing one hand up to cover my mouth as I did so. _Great_, now I felt irritated, along with being somewhat tired. That was just... I don't know, inconvenient?

The other snorted, turning around to face me. "I'd suggest you fall asleep, too, if you don't want to stay here longer than we thought. Besides, I'm sure you would like to be on the plans... firsthand, no?"

I frowned, looking somewhat irritated. "Okay, but... what if I slip into another coma or something?"

"You won't. Not possible. Quit worrying and rest."

I glanced down at the floor for a moment. "Fine, then. You can go now."

The other didn't really respond, which was just fine with me, because I didn't want to deal with him all that much right now, and I stared him down as he turned once more and walked off, leaving the room. Just as he had neared the door, and apparently thought he was out of earshot, I could hear him say to himself, "I'll just need to figure out where the Twins disappeared to..."

My eyes widened, and I froze up. _**What?**__ Oh bloody hell!_ I looked appropriately shocked, to say the least.

_{.end of chapter 4.}_

-your Warden


	5. I'm not that insane

{.chapter o5.}

this is boring can I go now?

_Friday, July 11th, 2025; the day on which my paranoia is painfully evident_

I glared at the desk as I sat on one of the few chairs surrounding the Future Warden's desk, setting the pair of crutches down so that I could easily grab a hold of them later. What was I doing here? Really, I don't remember why he told me to come, I just did and... oh. Wait. I remember now.

Counter-attack plans. The rebellion. Pain. Argh. My rage, it has merely dwindled into annoyance.

I didn't know what to expect, other than to expect, well... I don't know. I can't tell the future. But I knew this was going to be... painful. Painfully boring, perhaps, if only because ew. Plans.

My glare disappeared as I began to observe what the hell was actually on the desk, and there were quite a few maps, some disc _{shiny side up}_, and a few other things that looked fairly unimportant. I was the only one in the Future Warden's office, where we were supposed to meet; so far as I could tell, the other was outside paging everyone about his spur of the moment decision, and I had just been lucky to know about it first.

Eh. I guess it's okay. But still.

I looked up when I heard the door open, and the Twins, just as I had remembered them _{damn, why don't they age? They still look a little younger than twenty-one!}_, with their strange-looking teal-and-cyan outfit and some-what curly yellow hair, though one officially looked older than the other, at least. I had something else to go on besides their differently colored eyes. Now, come to think of it, I wasn't sure if I knew their names, if they even had one.

...huh. Still, though, my point still stands. I. Did. _Not_. Trust them. Not one _bit_. It didn't help that they seemed to be feigning interest in, though maybe my mind was starting to go down some gutter. Or something. I don't know what my mind does. "Hmm. It appears that the continuum _has_ been broken," spoke the elder twin, situating himself on the chair opposite of me, and I noted that his eyes had widened in what looked like alarm when he noticed the disc.

I would've smirked, I really would've except for the fact that I didn't even know what was on there. With a bitter tone, I replied testily, "More like bent, maybe shattered." I sniffed sharply with contempt. "_Don't_ shove that fact in my face."

Thankfully, at about this time, as the Twins were exchanging glances, Alice and Jailbot entered the office, causing the two to fall silent, and while Alice just ignored us, Jailbot noticed me, and a few green pixels on his screen formed a smile at me. I returned the smile just slightly, and a few minutes passed in rather awkward silence, save for the whirring of Jailbot X's motors. To take my mind off of the Twins, I started to examine the maps, though I wasn't truly comprehending it; hell, I wasn't even really _processing_ it. I just wanted to keep my eyes off of the older twin, if I couldn't keep my mind off of them.

Well, I thought that since everyone except Jared and the Future Warden was here, it wouldn't take too long to start the little meeting, and I wouldn't have to be here for too long. Well, uh...

..._yeah_, that... didn't happen.

That was also a little problematic for me, because I could get bored and fidgety easily, and I had nothing to occupy myself with that wouldn't cause me to look like, I don't know, an idiot or paranoid or something. Except I guess everyone knows I'm paranoid, so... I don't know, make me look _more_ paranoid? Not that I ever had a problem with that, though, because whatever I was paranoid about, I could at least be right on, say, half of the time, maybe more, maybe less. But then people stop believing me and... fine, people have stopped listening to what I say here, like, ninety percent of the time, too. Damn. So much for that, too.

I repeat, being in the future _sucks_. It just does.

So, anyway, to give you an idea of how steadily bored and fidgety I was getting, imagine this. Imagine being in an office, with little to focus on that wouldn't freak yourself out, for five minutes. Then ten. Then thirty. Then forty-five. 55 minutes. An hour and five minutes. 79 minutes. 80 minutes, 13 seconds, and 10 milliseconds. I started paying more and more attention to the time that had passed and murmuring something to myself under my breath and seeming more nervous. More and more time kept on passing, and I wasn't quite sure how anybody could sit around in an office like this for more than an hour. Hell, more than _half_ an hour!

Finally, though, I heard the Future Warden's voice through the door. "Jared, where _were_ you?" He sounded exasperated, but it also seemed to have a joking tone to it, which confused me.

I heard Jared's voice, though I couldn't at all make out what he was saying, and once the voices fell silent, the door opened and both Jared and the Future Warden stepped inside, closing the door behind them while they made their way to the kind of crowded desk _{whoever would've thought that having six people around a table would be crowded?}_. The Future Warden was the only one who was standing up, and he swept a glance around the room before nodding. "Good, we're all here now. We can get started."

I finally relaxed at the announcement and ceased in the tapping of my fingers against the table, sitting up straighter. "...so. What's on the disc?"

The Future Warden seemed to be in a good mood today when he smirked, picking up the aforementioned disc. "Ahh. This... you all remember the spur of the moment decision to raid the rebellion base, right? With the Warden here?" Everyone nodded in response to this, myself included. "Great! Anyway, this-" He held up the disc, making it face us. "-is the recording of the rebels talking about their battle plans. Thus... say goodbye to your stupid plans! After we watch it a couple times and discuss our own plans, anyway. Sound good?"

Alice shrugged, Jailbot let out an affirming beep, Jared nodded, the older Twin smiled, the younger cocked an eyebrow, and I murmured a quiet, "Sounds like a plan."

"Oh-kay! So...!" He dropped the disc into a CD drive, closing it after he did so, and a projector appeared on the ceiling of the room. At this time, the office grew appropriately dark as a light shined on the wall in front of us, and the captured video began to play.

"All right, men..." To be honest, I was only really half-listening, still quite distracted. I guess it was kind of a bad thing, but I at least tried to keep an ear out for any important bits of information despite myself. I couldn't really focus, though, since I was keeping one eye on both of the Twins, which was actually a pretty difficult task... especially since they weren't actually _doing_ anything, which was bugging the _hell_ out of me.

Why weren't they _doing_ anything? _Do_ something, you little...!

I looked up, at least _trying_ to pretend like as if I was paying attention as soon as I saw the Future Warden look at me with an irritated look, and I avoided his gaze, glancing down, but then I looked up at the projected video again.

_Holy hell, what is... that... that's Superjail!_ Albeit a crudely drawn version of it, but hey, I could recognize it. Okay, fine, I take back the fact that it was crudely drawn, it was more like... crudely... computer generated or something, drawing was still involved! Then again, I'd never seen the Future Warden's plans, though I think he actually used maps to, uh, map out what we were actually going to do. Anyway, the seemingly hand-drawn plan was also kind of badly animated.

I mean, come on, I don't even know how to animate things, but I _know_ I could do better! Unless they were _purposely_ trying to do it badly, in which case, we got handed the crappy version... I glanced over at the Twins, who both wore the same emotionless and distant expression. I twitched, frowning and furrowing my eyebrows for a moment before looking back at the screen.

The screen changed from the picture of Superjail to an actual map, pointing out the exact locations of the subsidiaries surrounding it, and I frowned, finally paying more attention to that than the Twins. Halle-effin'-lujah. I think. "...our first target will be _here_, to the south-east direction of Superjail, the strongest subsidiary and also the current residence of the Warden..." An 'x' appeared, and a curved line led from the x to the jail, with a circle around it. "...our plan is to completely surround the area and storm in, effectively trapping the Warden and killing him before anyone comes to aid him."

I frowned, feigning a yawn and resting an elbow on the table, resting my head on my fist. _Boooriiiing. Don't they know that we have lasers set up around the perimeters? There's no way they'd make it. Unless if they were the Twins. Or associated with them in some way, shape, or form._

"Once that is accomplished and we clear the area, then we will march onto Superjail, which will be left defenseless and without the Warden or his staff to run it, it should be fairly easy from there on out." I bit my lower lip, trying to stop the grin that was forming on my face. _Oh, that's __**adorable**__. They don't even know that there's a volcano within a volcano to keep them out._ I think I might have missed a few things here and there, but you know, you get the point. I don't think I was completely listening as to how they'd get around it, since I was too busy being sarcastic.

My eyes had started to close, and this time I really had yawned, now quite bored. "Failure, of course, is very well possible. Should the mission fail, we will retreat back to the base, and wait. We'll send our best agent to go undercover and watch the Warden and his equals." I could clearly hear the Future Warden snicker, apparently having become bored as well. "Once he has gathered a sufficient amount of information, then we will make our move, whatever that may be."

Yep, this was becoming sufficiently boring. Whoever would've guessed that this would've been as boring as hell? _Heh, it explains why the rebels are so easy to maneuver around, they don't pay much attention either._ However, best agent? My gaze slid over to the two twins, the tips of my lips twitching down. Did it have to be so damn obvious? At least, it was pretty obvious to me. To everybody else, they were just... well... the Twins they knew and trusted. But damn it, they were the _Twins_!

...huh, I think I said three 'damn's in that last paragraph.

Anyway, once this was done, the video stopped playing, the projector becoming black, and the Future Warden muttered something under his breath before the lights came back on.

"Okay. Now that that's over with." He stood up, bending over and propping himself up with an elbow, though he seemed to be avoiding some spot for whatever reason, like as if he'd gotten injured and was still sensitive, but I didn't both asking about that, mainly because it hadn't registered in my mind until I actually started writing about it. "So, first things first, what I think we should do. Since the rebels are going to storm this place first, since they already know that we're here, we can do either one of two things - we can go relocate ourselves to one of the other jails, which I don't really like as much, because we don't know when they'll attack, exactly..."

Jailbot X interrupted with a short series of beeps of varying pitches, and while I didn't quite understand _{I think I understood __**maybe**__ one thing in there}_, the Future Warden seemed to completely get it. "Oh, approximately seven days from now? Yeah, definitely not enough time right now. Maybe we'll do it later, though. When we have more of an advantage in doing so or something." He waved dismissively.

"Which _then_ leads to my more appropriate idea!" I noted that the other sounded strangely pleased, and had completely ignored the fact that I too always sounded extraordinarily cheerful when I talked about ways to kill off some of the weaker inmates, and the other straightened up, removing his elbow from the table and cringing noticeably, sucking in a breath of air before shaking his head. "Tch. My idea is that we load up a few ships with soldiers, since we still have enough manpower, hehehe, to pull this off. We figure out where they're coming from, and we cut them off." He smiled, gesturing his hands in the air as he shrugged, eyebrows raising.

...to be truthful, I'll admit one thing. Future me isn't all that bad with coming up with a plan near-instantaneously and making it sound good. That kind of ability fails once he tries to spring one on me without me even knowing the situation before hand, though. So I said _nothing_ that would even remotely be a compliment! _NOTHING_!

Ahem. "So we cut them off, drive them back to the rebellion base, and we also try destroying it. And, to figuratively nip the obvious problem in the metaphorical bud, after we've slain most of the rebels, we go and take their base. Well, I mean, we just attack it, gather anything useful, et cetera, et cetera." He quietly and quickly muttered, "Which I kind of just reiterated, but that's not my point." In a louder voice, he resumed his original train of thought. "I mean, we'll still have a few rebellion groups to deal with after the fact, since there's bound to be a world-wide opposition, but who cares? We'll just use the same tactic we always have." He shrugged. "Any suggestions, additions, or the like?"

I was starting to learn that _'any suggestions'_ meant, from the Future Warden, _'does anyone object, and I hope not, because __**damn **__it this sounds like a good plan to me'_. At least, that's how I was starting to perceive this. That was certainly how he treated me and my suggestions that actually made _sense_. After everyone had pretty much replied no in some way, shape, or form, he frowned, shrugging. "Fair enough. I don't know why I tell my plans sometimes when no one has anything to add. But who am I to complain? Go, just go. We've got this established."

So everybody stood up to leave, and I stood up as well, glancing at the Future Warden, who now seemed rather nervous, much to my surprise. I would've asked him what was going on if it weren't for the fact that if he was as pissy as I thought he was, he wouldn't want to bother gracing me with more than a 'fuck off', so I followed the rest of the group out, and, incidentally, the Twins.

_Biiiiig_ effin' whoop.

I decided to, on a split second decision, follow the Twins for a little bit and find out more, if no one else would believe me, at least I would get... my own proof! I feel like I'm trying too hard. Maybe I am... but anyway, I followed them, hoping I looked like as if I wasn't trying to follow them or even spy on them, but to be honest, I wasn't sure how well that would work out for me. I mean, I _did_ just sit there glaring at them with the most distrusting stare known to mankind _{at least, I hope I pulled it off}_.

Immediately, I started to walk more cautiously when I heard the older twin laugh slightly. I tilted my head for a split second before actually trying to get a good view of the two, eyes narrowing considerably. Eventually, I figured out that the elder was holding some kind of device, perhaps a pager or a handheld transceiver _{for those of you who aren't as bothered by informal terms as I am, it's a walkie-talkie}_, though I was pret-ty sure it was a handheld transceiver. "They do not suspect a thing, Commander. The plan should go as origina-"

I was pretty damn close, now, and decided to make good use of my close proximity. "Hey~!" I may have sounded pretty pleased, but if one read into my voice enough, they'd be able to tell that I was ticked, possibly on the edge of hysteria, too. Plus, it was rather evident in my facial expression that I seemed to know what they were onto, or at least, I _thought_ I knew. I grabbed the older twin's shoulders, a smug but dangerous grin forming on my face. "Who might _you_ be talking to?"

The other turned around and frowned, pressing some button on there and slipping it into a, I don't know, sort of holster thing, maybe. He didn't look very impressed, and without much warning, shoved me away, causing me to stumble slightly, but I managed to regain my balance just as he started to reply, walking away. "No one in particular. Stay quiet about this little incident, and you will not have any... _problems_." He had already started to walk off, and at this point, I knew that there wasn't much use at this point, as nearly immediately afterwards, they teleported off, and I frowned.

"...damn it." I don't care about so-called threats, I wasn't going to stay silent about this.

...except for the fact that I didn't know how I was going to go about bringing up _this_ subject. That would be... difficult, but I at least had the rest of today to think it over. But my point still stood.

I knew they were a menace to whatever was going to happen. I just _knew_ it.

_{.end of chapter 5.}_

-your Warden


	6. The argument to end all arguments, kinda

{.chapter o6.}

listen to me, god dammit!

_Saturday, July 12th, 2025; the day on which I finally figured out __**why**__ exactly I hated future me_

The very next day, when I was absolutely _certain_ that the other was awake, due to much sneaking about, cursing, and constantly contacting the Future Warden to see if he'd pick up the pager and listen, I had made up my mind. There was only one way to go about this situation without being discovered.

Eventually, after trying to page the Future Warden fifty times _{about once every five minutes, if I'm doing my math right, which equals to... ten minutes?}_, he finally picked up. He... didn't look terribly pleased. Oops. "What the hell do you _want_, Warden?" Uh, yeah. Double oops on my part. He was not at all impressed with my persistence.

...well, at least his pissy attitude didn't really faze me right now. "I wa... no, actually, I _need_ a word with you, Future Warden. It may be very extensive, so if you want, I could meet you at your office~" I grinned, finding it... _extremely_ easy to actually remain calm and state my case. My problem. Whatever. Which was really convenient, because I don't think the Future Warden would've wanted to listen to a mad, raving past him, since that was very, very likely... but not right now, at any rate.

He frowned, repositioning his glasses. "...well..." He sighed, and he still looked no better than he did yesterday; in fact, I dare say he looked worse. Look, I really don't know how I notice these things, or why I even _care_, but I guess it was all a matter of simply... knowing. So, for the record, he didn't look very well; dark circles had formed under his eyes, and he had to hold his head up with a hand... plus, he seemed to speak a little slower. At least, he had stretched out the well, and... oh wait, I do that a lot too. Hmmm. He blinked, expression now quite blank... it actually creeped me out, a little bit. "...fine. Give me a brief overview."

I pursed my lips for a moment. "I want to fight in the upcoming battle."

The other's eyes widened, seemingly awake now, though I could still tell that it wasn't going to last. "Wh-what? You can't go out into the battle, there's-!"

I had already closed the link, sighing and slipping the pager into one of the pockets of my tailcoat. I don't care what the Future Warden said later, I had to go speak to him face-to-face! This was far too worrying for me and. Just. Argh! This was kind of frustrating, but there wasn't much else I could really do, so far as I could tell.

~.x.~

It didn't take too long this time for me to find the Future Warden's office. I presumed that was where he was, and so I tapped my knuckles against the door. "Uh, hey. _Can_ I come in? This really is important..."

I didn't hear a reply, and I fidgeted nervously, furrowing my eyebrows. I wasn't frustrated, actually, but more like... well, confused, for sure, but also... I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but I had some other feeling mixed in there, but like I said, I couldn't quite understand it. So I did my best to ignore it, instead, placing in the code and quietly opening the door, hoping that I wasn't interrupting anything and that the Future Warden wouldn't be pissed.

...I didn't know how _right_ I was. Usually I'm very, _very_ wrong on this, but...

I had opened the door, expecting to see maybe that the Future Warden was gone, or maybe that he had gotten, ah, busy _{in some way, shape, or form}_, but instead, that was not the case, nor was anything remotely related to that. It turned out that somehow, he had fallen asleep, curled up in the chair, and quite honestly, I had _no clue_ how he could pull that off. I mean, I wasn't gone for that long, was I? And plus, he's a really deep sleeper, apparently. Not that that isn't to say that I'm not, either, it's just that... you know, when you're going to be the dictator of an entire world or something, you'd think that you'd at least sleep with one eye open, in case someone tries to kill you.

Again, maybe I'm just paranoid. I mean, it makes sense that I would be... because I think I am...

I closed the door behind me as I slipped inside, and I knew that really, I should've left and let the other rest, since he seemed like he really needed it, but I couldn't let the topic lie, either. I still deemed it very important, and besides, if the other was exhausted, perhaps I could annoy him into submission, if not just be persistent. Either option would work.

I tensed up when I saw the other twitch quite visibly _{he had jerked forward, and the worst that could've happened was that he could've fallen off of the chair and hit his head against his desk, but luckily, he had just jerked forward}_ and awake with quite the start, gasping and shaking his head, looking rather surprised. "Aah!" He frowned, holding his head again, and he was silent for a moment before he glanced up from his desk and noticed me. "I... oh." He rubbed his forehead, and I noticed that he was trying to keep as friendly as possible, which had to be rather difficult for him. "Uh, what are you doing here, Warden?"

I fidgeted nervously, trying to think this through and approach the subject at a more... what, gentle angle? An angle the Future Warden _wouldn't_ kill me for? To be honest, it sounded really hard to do that. I mean, he'd probably bite my head off even if I told him 'that's a pretty good idea'. Probably. "I just... needed a word with you. It was very important, and..."

"Mmh. I get it." He lethargically swung his legs around and set them under the desk, keeping an eye on me. "I'll listen. Only because I know you'd tell me even if I told you 'no'."

Ehm... I wasn't really sure if I should've been insulted or pleased, but nonetheless, I decided to speak now before he changed his mind. "Yes, well... I have a few matters I need to speak about regarding the Twins and the upcoming battle. But first off, why do you trust the Twins so easily, so much? They could turn around and stab you at pretty much any second!"

...whelp. Good_bye_ sanity.

The other stared at me for a moment. "Look at it this way, Warden. I understand that for you, time-wise, the last time the Twins tried to 'wrong' you was, what, a few weeks ago?" Technically, five weeks, but nonetheless, I slowly nodded, albeit skeptically. "However, they haven't done anything damaging for thirteen years, for me. In fact, they've been really helpful, especially for this plan."

Right about then was when I lost all ability to try considering the other side. He was completely oblivious, wasn't he?

I couldn't help but twitch, my eyes narrowing, and I leaned forward, planting my hands on the desk. "But tell me, do you know _why_ they're being so helpful?"

"Of course not," the Future Warden replied quickly as he shrugged, giving me about the reaction I was expecting. So I wasn't quite being thrown off course _quite_ quite yet... my mouth, which had originally formed a thin, straight line, twitched into a bit of a frown. "Let me guess, I suppose _you_ think you know?"

"Well. No. Actually... yes, I think I have plenty of convincing reasons. But I won't touch base on that yet." I made sure I was about eye-level with the Future Warden now. "Are you blind? Yesterday, I followed the Twins as they were leaving-"

"_Why_ wer-"

"Shut up, shut up! The older twin was carrying some kind of, I don't know, transmission device receiver thing, and he was talking to someone he referred to as 'Commander', and, just... how do you explain _that_?"

The other was silent for a moment, and I was hoping he would be considering what I was saying, but he frowned after a few seconds, and he glanced up at me, not impressed. "Warden, for all I know, you could've made it up right at this very moment, with as vague as you were."

"But, but...!" I bit my lower lip, losing my previously calm composure very quickly. "_Come on_! Listen to reason! What if the Twins were _trying_ to lull you into a sense of complacency and trust, so that, maybe, I don't know, they could stab you in the back at your most vulnerable?"

Well, okay. I didn't so much expect that. Hence why I was _really_ losing it. Whatever 'it' was. The Future Warden simply raised one eyebrow and interlaced his fingers. "I honestly don't see why you're freaking out. As I said, maybe for you, it's only felt like a month, but it's been years for me."

I frowned, and I remained displeased about the situation. I took a deep breath, trying my best to remain calm, but I doubted it would remain that way for long. "Fine, then. If you won't listen to me about the Twins, maybe you'll listen to me about this. The counterattack..." I paused, trying to find the simplest way to put it. "...I want to be there."

Now it was the Future Warden's turn to go ballistic on me... albeit in a much calmer way, at least for now. "_No_. You are not going to go out into battle. Right now you're probably at your own most vulnerable, too, might I remind you, and you're just as much of a mortal as anybody else!" I blinked, as if this fact were new to me, but I didn't look too terribly surprised... well, I _hoped_ I didn't, anyway. Before I really had a chance to speak, the Future Warden pushed himself up and glared at me, apparently very much unamused. "Oh, was that new to you?"

That statement was an understatement, and I believe that's even more of an understatement to place it as simply as _that_. Truthfully, I think I was starting to feel a little bit scared of the other, because while yes, I knew he didn't at all like me, and yes, I knew that if he had any choice in the manner, he'd shoot me and leave me to die, he'd never quite acted like he was going to, like he was right now. I cringed and took a step back. "Uhm, Future Warden, I really _can_ explain this..." I cursed myself for sounding so nervous, but then again, he _had_ just been getting ready to chew me out, but the other seemed a little too tired to me to actually come up with anything to actually use against me.

So I guess he was just really irritated and annoyed and I just so happened to push him _right_ over the edge.

The other took a deep breath and shook his head, sliding back into the chair and trying to be calmer, so far as I could tell. "You can, can you? Do tell."

All right. Fine. Fine. I stood back up again, folding my arms across my chest, not quite in a defensive manner but I didn't look all too pleased, either. "So, first off. Given that I'm not forced into the battle with no knowledge this time, I could actually be useful. Also, since my armor - does that still exist, by the way? - doesn't have the telepathic transmission apparatus, I could sneak into the rebel base, sneak around for a little bit, and perhaps blow it up. Take care of the problem, so to speak." _Okay, I hope that's reason enough, because otherwise, I won't be able to do much._

The other frowned, but nonetheless spoke. "I suppose it could work. It would certainly help if you _did_ actually succeed. But... let me guess, this has something to do with the Twins, doesn't it?"

I blinked and looked away, starting to feel a little nervous. He was still able to think well. "N-no, of course not, w-whatever would give you _that_ idea, I..." I sighed, frowning, and stared down at the desk. Quietly, I murmured as an afterthought, "...maybe."

The other raised both eyebrows, but managed to maintain the bored look. "So, you were lying about your plan?"

My eyes flew up to meet the Future Warden, almost surprised. "What? _No_! The plan would, however, help me with keeping an _eye_ on the Twins while I carry it out." I knew I was definitely starting to look desperate now. "Come on, please, let me do this. I think I actually know what I'm _doing_. I need to do this."

The other folded his arms across his chest and was silent for a few minutes, apparently thinking this over, or so I hoped. Finally, he leaned forward. "...okay. I'll trust you enough to let you pull this off. If you can do this... great. If you can't... well, that depends on how badly you screw up." He interlaced his fingers, still looking quite out of it. "So, go. We'll talk later today. Hopefully I'll be more... comprehensible by then. Just... don't screw up and don't bother me about the Twins any more, all right?"

I grinned, knowing that I had just gotten him. "Yes! That's great, it really is. I guess I'll be back later, then." I nodded and headed off in the direction of the door. _This is it. I've finally gotten him to listen, even if he didn't entirely listen to me._

Things were _finally_ going as I'd hoped they would.

_{.end of chapter 6.}_

-your Warden

* * *

Okay, so... from hereon out, as I'm sure you've noticed, the updates are going to be more... spastic, I guess. Erratic. Anyway, though, I have but one question for those of you who've been reading this...

...the Warden_{s?}_. What do you guys think of how I'm writing him? Er... them?


	7. Please abandon all hope at the door

{.chapter o7.}

hope - it may not be warranted at this point

_Saturday, July 19th, 2025; the day on which I will readily admit that everything went to hell - and didn't come back_

I can't exactly say I was completely confident in what I was up to. Well... I had a good reason this time. Really. You can't blame me, since our last operation... well... ended badly. I... guess.

But, ah, then again, I had no clue as to how to react when forcibly shoved into battle. At least this time, I... er... I knew what to expect! That's always a good thing. Right?

...why _not_.

"So... would you mind telling me what your plan is?"

I jumped when I felt something touch my shoulder, and with a hissed _'what in the-'_, I whipped around, taking a step back. As it turned out, it was only the Future Warden, but still. "Don't sneak up on me like that! What in the _hell_...!"

"Sorry to say this, but it's a little easy to 'sneak up' on you." The older man folded his arms across his chest. "But you seem confident. Do you have a plan?"

Well, even if I _had_ been feeling confident, I definitely wasn't any more. I pressed the tips of my fingers together nervously. "Err... I'm... still working out the details. It... it'll come, it'll come." _And most likely when I'm in the little skirmish myself... heh... heh._

The Future Warden frowned. "...oh. I was hoping I'd be able to actually keep _track_ of you this time."

Needless to say, this puzzled me slightly. "Well... you _do_ realize that you inserted a tracking device in my armor, right?"

He fidgeted slightly, as if nervous but trying to hide the fact. "I... yes, of course... o-of course." It seemed to me that he didn't really believe himself, and honestly, I had no reason to either, but at least I could fake it pretty well.

By now, I'd already turned around and had begun to walk off, feeling unusually 'okay' _{since I wasn't __**completely**__ 'meh'}_ about my lack of a plan... but it was coming together in my head. Mostly. "Anyway, I need to get prepared for my little 'espionage'-"

"Sabotage, you mean?"

"Fft!" I waved him off dismissively. "Shouldn't you be on the lookout for rebel troops?"

I could see the Future Warden shrug. "Mm, later. That won't be for a few more hours, and Jared's taking care of that." There was a brief pause as he followed me. "You should stay put, too; whatever you're doing, it won't be as effective if you leave right now."

I frowned, not even gracing him with a response, save for the fact that I glanced over my shoulder as I watched him turn to leave. _There when the bit of my plan I actually __**had**__._

~.x.~

So, let me say one thing, really quick: battles rarely go smoothly, let alone as _planned_.

Anyway, I was finally thankful for the fact that I rarely required a real plan of any sort. So far as having no plan at all went _{at least in terms of actually accomplishing the task I'd given myself}_, I was doing... not exactly okay, but I wasn't being shot down, either. That was a start. Actually... no. Let me rephrase that.

That was _the_ start. You'll understand what I mean later.

Our troops had been waiting to ambush the rebels long before they even arrived, and my plan was to hurry to the enemy base while everyone _else_ was in the confusion of combat. That, so far as I was concerned, was as far as I was going to go with a plan - not the carrying out itself, I intended to do that, I just mean the overall planning process. I'd likely jinx myself if I planned much else any farther.

I myself was in hiding, which was quite the feat for me, but that's not the point. My point is, I was waiting to make my move, which would be either _really_ easy or _inhumanly_ difficult, and at this point, I was starting to lean towards it being... ah, hard. What if I missed my mark? What if I left too early? It was all too much of a possibility, knowing myself, and-

_"Warden! Do you hear me?"_ The Future Warden. Good.

Oh. Yeah. The receiver thing in my armor had been replaced, too. Almost forgot about that. _"Er, yes. I copy you."_ I paused for a moment. _"Ah. Hey, would it be possible for you to at least order me off? I don't want to die right away, sooo..."_

_"I'm in a room full of radars. Of course I can."_ I could clearly hear the sarcasm _{or was it the biting dryness of his statement? I don't know.}_ in his voice, but I didn't react too strongly to it one way or another. _"So, I'll alert you to when you need to make a run for it."_

My eyes widened considerably. _"WHAT."_

~.x.~

Luckily for me, the Future Warden was just making a 'slip of the tongue' and/or just speaking as he normally did, and I was just taking him _far_ too literally. Heh. Well, anyway, everything had been going good so far...

...if, by good, you mean nothing.

Well, I mean, it wasn't like I was even waiting for very long. I was still watching for the rebels. But still, so far as I was concerned, I was waiting for a rather long time, not to mention that it was taking quite a bit of convincing myself that 'yes, me, I can stay put for a few more minutes... more... more... meh'.

Anyway, back to the story.

I was actually in a fairly good position, given the task at hand. I'd hidden myself away on some higher ground - soldiers didn't look up, and pilots would probably miss me, as I was hanging out in the shadows. Now, by higher ground, I just mean that I was on top of a hill with some rubble from some past battles, but nonetheless, it was a good hiding place. It had a good view of the battle that was to come, and where I was, I could easily make a run for it. For the most part, at any rate.

By this point, I could see the vaguest shapes of soldiers, and I frowned. _"...are they the rebels, by any chance?"_

I didn't get any response. It wasn't like I necessarily cared, though; for all I knew, he could've been focusing on something a bit more important. Not that I'm saying that I wasn't at all important. Either way, I decided to wait until I was commanded to get a move on, as right now, I believed that the Future Warden would have at least some better judgment than I did _{not that I'd ever admit it}_.

A few minutes later, and I could clearly see the two armies clashing. I frowned, nervous now, starting to doubt the Future Warden now. _"Uhm... Future Warden? Do you copy me? Er, read me? Et cetera?"_

There was a pause, a few seconds with silence, and then I finally heard the Future Warden. _"...I copy you. I think."_ Another pause - what was he _doing_? - and then he spoke up again. _"...__**oh**__! Get moving, now!"_

He sounded panicked, and though I wanted to question him, I decided that I was going to move too late if I did so, and so I did the next best thing. I ran forward, leaving the safety of the shadows, attempting to ready my rifle - just in case - as I did so. This was... a difficult task, to say the least, but this was done without incident, luckily for me.

Well, up until a point.

The Future Warden was unusually silent as I quickly made my way off the hill, still hiding behind the rubble periodically and checking for enemies as I went, and I would've thought that he would be checking on me quite a bit, but the receiver held no messages, getting rid of that idea rather quickly. However, I wasn't about to jeopardize myself to find out, either. I slid to a stop behind another piece of rubble, peering around the side, forcing the topic out of my mind. Who cared about him? I thought I knew what I was doing.

As it turned out, there were a few rebellion soldiers that had been smart enough to see through our ambush, and had circumvented the Superjail army altogether. I frowned; they were very close. Too close for my liking. _Someone should've expected that this would happen,_ I thought for a brief moment, before I convinced myself to try aiming for a good shot instead of griping about it.

Their backs were facing me now - didn't they feel so confident! I kept silent, shifting slightly into a crouch, resting one elbow on my knee so I could better steady my gun. I leaned to the right slightly, watching them closely, slowly trying to change my aim. I had the advantage, but this... wasn't going to work out so well.

I pulled the trigger - offhandedly musing that there should really be one of those contraptions they put on machine guns to let out a stream of bullets - and I let some bullets fly. Some of them missed; most of them hit one of the rebels, and a few stray bullets hit the other two. The one that had been hit the hardest was knocked down, and just as he fell, I noticed that the bullets had ripped through the armor on both sides. He was definitely dead.

The other two? Not so much. The stray bullets must've been blown about by a little bit of wind or something and had merely made a slight dent in the armor.

But anyway... uh... oops.

I quickly flung myself against the rubble, back pressed against it, and I took a deep breath, starting to panic myself now. They had noticed. I think they knew where I was, too. Which honestly meant that really, I should be revealing myself and blasting them to bits before _I_ was blasted to bits first, but... like I said, I was panicking.

However, I did manage to force myself up. They pulled the trigger first - some bullets lodged themselves in the armor, but hadn't punctured all the way quite yet, and I too had fired away, doing my best to get rid of the two of them as quickly as possible. This was done without too much difficulty, despite the fact that I was trembling now.

And, at that point, my mind had pretty much been made up for me. I really _did_ have to make a run for it.

~.x.~

I can't say that I made good progress. I couldn't say that I made _bad_ progress, either.

I was close to the rebellion base, which was closer to the subsidiary than I remembered. I had managed to circumvent a few skirmishes with rebel soldiers. So far, so good, or so the theory went. If I made it, then I was well off, and could probably pull off some spying. So far, though... well, I wasn't being the stealthiest soldier on the battle field. Saw some soldiers? Gun them down, quick, before they saw me. Did they rise from the dead? Shoot. Them. Dead.

I didn't think of maybe just continuing on my course and hoping for the best. I mean, for all they knew, I could've just been a deserter... which, you know, doesn't sound like a bad idea. Not that I'd do it. The Future Warden wouldn't be too entirely impressed with me.

Speaking of which, he still hadn't contacted me. Something had to be wrong, but what? I didn't exactly have the time to ponder over that, though...

Being so close to the base now, I forced myself to hide, watching as quietly as possible, trying to see how many soldiers were coming out of the rebellion base or even just surrounding it, just in case. There weren't too many soldiers leaving, but there were definitely a few troops on patrol, circling their area, talking in a fairly calm manner, not really expecting anyone to come too close, much to my surprise.

This would be... difficult.

And already, my mind was working against me. _Turn back now, while you still can. The Future Warden would like it better if you came back alive as opposed to in a casket with the world falling apart around him._ I shook my head. _If I leave now, I'll have failed my self-appointed mission and I'll have no idea if I was rightfully paranoid or not. But there's no way I can take on that many soldiers... or sneak past them, for that matter._

Plus, so far as I could tell, there wasn't much I could really hide behind. This must've been a barricade of sorts - it was kind of tall, slanted back slightly, and would've been difficult to shoot over. Additionally, there wasn't anything else I could sneak to - there was too much open space. If I changed positions, I'd be shot down without a question.

_Great, I forced myself into a suicide mission and I don't intend on running back with my tail between my legs. And I thought __**I **__was sane._

I frowned. Wasn't this just great? This left one plan - I'd have to fight. Hopefully, they'd know who I was. I knew that they thought the Warden - ahem, Future Warden, I mean - was very important to them. If they had him held hostage, then the war would be over, and goodbye Superjail. That was if they caught the Future Warden, though. Who knew what would happen if they caught me instead? I'd probably be treated in a similar way.

...you know, I don't know at all.

So far as I could tell, the likelihood any success was at a 15% chance, give or take a few tenths. I'd take it, because it was better than nothing at all.

_It's better than nothing. Might as well take the chance while I still can._

With no other choice, I left my hiding place and ran, aware of the bullets suddenly letting loose. The soldiers must've known that I was there - how else would they have been so prepared? I winced and stumbled slightly as a bullet punctured the metal armor and lodged itself in my leg while another bullet collided with my chest plate... where the tracking device was. I didn't notice this _{of course}_ and, like anyone else would do, I attempted to take a shot at them too. However, there were so many of them, and only one of me. Three of the groups that had surrounded the base were now surrounding me, and I took a step back, visibly shaken when a few of the bullets skillfully shot the rifle out of my hand.

_Uh... back-up plan? Now? Please?_

A hand was raised from one of the soldiers, signaling for the others to stop firing at me. "Men! Cease your fire!" I frowned, swallowing thickly, taking a feeble step back. _Not. Good._ "The general said the Warden would come here himself. This has to be him. Restrain him and we'll get him inside." A few soldiers were motioned forward - at least four.

_What the hell? Why would they need four soldiers to just hold me down?_

I mean, it wasn't like I was exactly being at all forceful. Hell, I was practically surrendering myself to... oh. Yeah. That's right. I wasn't practically doing it, I _was_ doing it.

I let out a quiet whine as my arms were grabbed roughly, and the lead soldier took off my helmet, looking it over and holding it in his arms once he was satisfied. "Let's go. The rest of you! Back to your stations!"

"Yes sir!"

As I was being dragged towards the base, I was still nervous, fidgeting as best as I could and whimpering, albeit fairly quietly, but they could still hear me. Normally, I would've been berating myself for being so weak and/or pathetic, but by that point, I was pretty much with justifiable reasons for it. Eventually, I heard a deep sigh.

_This is __**the**__ worst idea ever._

"Someone, put him out of his misery! And our own, for that matter."

And, on cue, one of the two soldiers following us in swung a fist towards my face, effectively knocking me out.

_{.end of chapter 7.}_

-your Warden


	8. What the hell was that for?

{.chapter o8.}

not even my refined glossary of expletives can cover this

_Sunday, July 20th, 2025; the day on which I had no witty words for this subtitle_

It was like déjà vu when I first came to.

...except a bit different. This would be as one would kind of all ready expect, but still. Instead of being captured by the Superjail Army, or even more appropriately, myself, I'd been captured by the rebels _{speaking of which: 'good job, myself. I have spectacularly __**failed**__.}_. And, instead of being tied to a chair, I was... chained to a wall. Or something. Come on! It was dark! How the hell was I supposed to know? For all I knew, I could've been chained to the ceiling... or the floor... or, you know, a wall. Whichever made the most sense.

I didn't really know what was going on, though. I mean, obviously, I wasn't dead, but...

...unless...

...wait a minute.

It had all started to pretty much dawn on me by that point that something was wrong. It felt like my breath was bouncing off of something, making me feel unusually warm, and I squirmed slightly. There had to be some bag over my head. Well, I guess I could kind of get that - I mean, I _was_ a prisoner, but...

"Come on, couldn't we be a bit more civil about this?" I was well aware of the fact that my voice would've been muffled, if there was indeed a bag covering my head, and I frowned, doing my best to remain calm... which wasn't taking that much effort right now. Right now being the key word. "I mean, I surrendered myself to you. Surely that counts for _something_, right?"

Immediately thereafter, a cold blade ripped through my skin, and I gasped, wincing. "Remain silent until spoken to, prisoner!" It was a sharp voice; I wouldn't have been able to say much more about it.

"O-of course," I replied before I could really rationalize anything, and this earned me another sharp jab with the blade, and I shuddered, gritting my teeth. Cold blade. Warm blood seeping out of... out of wherever it was coming from.

I didn't have much time to think about it, though, as another voice interrupted the darkness. "Well, well. I never would've thought I'd see you." I recognized the voice, so far as that went - it belonged to the soldier... maybe the officer... who had decided to hold me captive. "Let alone be lucky enough to capture you myself. So, tell me... who sent you here?"

"I did." Forget my sentence where I said that it wasn't taking much effort for me to remain calm. I was panicking slightly. I couldn't see anything, and I had already tried to convince myself that if I just played along, they'd let me go. _Yeah, right. They'd kill me once they were done with me, once I outlived my usefulness to them._ Might as well bide my time. If I had any _to_ bide.

The other laughed slightly. "I'm sure." I could hear him cracking his knuckles, and I attempted to shrink away into the wall. "Why, then? What are you here for?"

I swallowed nervously. "Nothing that I would find now." There was a pause, and then the blade dug itself into... my torso, would be my best guess. I let out a quiet whine; I'd have to get used to this sometime, but who knew when that would be. "I. Didn't. Find it." Immediately thereafter, the knife - which, might I mention, had been dug into where it had been stabbed into - was dragged across.

"Obviously you had some kind of mission."

"Obviously, my mission failed." My voice was becoming strained now as I tried my best to ignore the persisting pain. I couldn't react now. Not so early on.

"Tell me that again?"

"My. Mission. _Failed_, and more than quite obviously." Even though I couldn't see him, I was glaring in his general direction. The blade wasn't even the least of my problems right now; this was just plain irritating. The interrogator was not amused - I heard him growl under his breath _{I think}_ and he whispered something to somebody else, who rushed off with quick and light footsteps. A few moments later, and said 'somebody' _{I guess the one who was stabbing me}_ was back, dragging something that sounded heavy.

"Please, allow me, just once." There was another moment of silence, but only a few seconds of pain had passed before I was struck again. This time, I let out a pained hiss - it was still the blade, but they weren't trying to kill me yet. They had to have dipped it in something - even as the blade was removed, the wound continued to sting. What did they do... alcohol? "That was the wrong answer. What was your mission?"

Preemptively, the blade dug into my flesh, and I would've been biting back an answer until I decided that they would just keep moving the blade until I gave them an answer. I waited for a few seconds, trying to get my thoughts together - the little thoughts that I had left in my head at that moment - but then I snapped, "Your generals! The Twins! I was going to spy on them! See what they were up to!"

The blade was removed slowly, still with the intent on causing me some agony, and I took a deep breath, gritting my teeth. _I should've lied. How would they have known?_

"Hmm~!" There was something that sounded thoughtful about that 'hmm', and I wasn't at all enthused. I frowned, glancing around the darkness. "Interesting. Bold of you, too, might I add." He was obviously mocking me, though. I could tell that much from his voice.

Then I was more than aware of the blade resting on my chest, just on top of my sternum. I could tell this much because he was applying quite a bit of pressure now. "What are your weaknesses?"

I swallowed nervously, trying to sink deeper into the wall. "My own, or Superjail's?"

He didn't mind this question, keeping the blade steady on my sternum. "Superjail's weaknesses. What are they?"

...you know what, I honestly didn't care that I definitely would be killed if I didn't divulge the information to him. "I can't say." Nonetheless, I still went through my thoughts, knowing that I'd overheard the Future Warden talk to Jared every now and then in a worried tone, but I never thought it would really be a good idea to listen in on them.

"What do you mean, 'you can't say'?" The officer growled, and I shrunk away slightly. The blade dug in slightly.

Alcohol makes everything worse. I wasn't about to put Superjail at risk, though. "I don't know. And I can't tell you what I don't know."

The other laughed, but it was more in a way of _'I am going to have so much fun with you later'_ rather than... well, something different than that. "Every day I see your numbers dwindle, Warden. Don't be stupid. I've seen them on the battlefield, losing it and thrusting himself into a suicide of sorts." The blade continued to dig deeper now, and I squirmed slightly. "And you're here now. You might as well tell me what your weaknesses are."

"Congratulations, you've noticed that we are at least running out of men." _Wait, we are? Since when?_ "I don't know, _sir_."

The blade was removed before quickly being thrusted elsewhere, and I cringed. The interrogator leaned closer. "You'll have to tell me, Warden. One day."

That was quickly my hint towards the fact that I would be in this place for quite some time.

~.x.~

Even when I wasn't being _officially_ tortured _{what did they call it? 'Enhanced interrogation'?}_, it continued on through the night.

I was escorted into some room, and just before the door was opened, one of the soldiers behind me untied some knot and opened the bag, taking it off quickly. I was still being held, as if they expected me to fight back, but honestly, I was feeling rather drained from the day as a whole and besides, I wasn't exactly... 'threatening' in the first place. Except with a weapon I could actually use. But right now, I didn't fill any of the aforementioned criteria, soo... point taken?

Roughly, I was shoved into the cell, and I didn't exactly prepare myself for the landing, falling on my side, wincing as something dug into one of my wounds, and watching the group nervously. However, even at my position, I could barely hear one of their communicators. "Did you shackle him for the night yet?"

"Er, no, sir," one of the younger men replied, frowning. "We didn't-"

Ah, he was new. "Didn't what? Think? Get in there and restrain him, private!"

The young man jumped to the cell door. "Y-yes sir!" Quickly, he pressed a button on the black device, slipping it into a holster of sorts, and he opened the door, grabbing me by the forearm and forcing me up. I complied, and while the private was muttering to himself _{presumably curses in the direction of his commanding officer}_, he fastened some metal around my wrists, eyes narrowed.

As soon as he was done, he muttered some more curses under his breath and left, locking the cell door behind him. I listened to him leave, and I allowed myself to relax slightly, taking the moment to take a look around the cell. It wasn't remarkable in the least - it was just cold. And there were shackles coming from both the ceiling and the floor. It didn't look... terrifying. But then, it was also so dark that it wouldn't have mattered. Some light glinted off the metal, but otherwise? Forget it.

_I shouldn't bother myself with this. I need to figure out how to get out. And fast._

As I started to drift off, a high-pitched sound echoed through the room, and I couldn't do anything, the most I was doing was trying to cringe away and failing. It sounded kind of like somebody - like, I don't know... a little girl? - was screaming, except worse. Maybe... maybe... fingernails going against a chalkboard? Well... that didn't quite fit it either... the sound was loud, pervasive, and could easily give me a splitting headache.

Which, needless to say, it was.

And it would continue to do so for the rest of the night.

~.x.~

The next few days, stretching out into even the next week, and on into August, were just as unpleasant as one would expect them to be. They would try different techniques on me every now and then - stressful positions, sensory deprivation, humiliation, beatings, blinding me with light periodically... they found ways to keep me on guard. I never told them anything important, though. I wouldn't let that slip. Between the sleep deprivation and everything else, though, it proved to be quite difficult, but still. I... don't quite know what more to say.

Today was no different.

Well... no, wait, hold on. Obviously, today _was_ different, since I'm quite obviously _writing_ about it. Soo... and plus, 'no different' is a rather foreshadowing term in the first place.

Anyway.

It _did_ start normally. I could say that much with absolute certainty. The private that was assigned to me unshackled me and ordered me to follow him. So I did. Not like I knew anything about the internal structure of the rebel base. It's kind of hard to find out anything when they take me between two different rooms, so I was _really_ acquainted with 'the torture room' and 'the stay the fuck out of our way in every way shape and form room'.

Again, I was roughly thrusted into the torture room, and the young private made a run for it while he still could, the lucky bastard. However, I directed my attention away from that; I needed to get my usual tactic together now: play along, stay silent, make the interrogator bored with me so he'd release me back to my cell. It'd worked for the past few weeks.

So the interrogator, without much of even a single word, herded me over to some chains, locked them around the wrists and ankles, and continued on with the procedure. He'd grown bored. I wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

...probably a _bad_ thing, given my current luck.

"We've been over this question for the past few weeks, Warden. It would be so much easier if you actually _cooperated_."

Well, not even three weeks of torture _{well, it was actually fairly mild/vanilla so far as torture went, because if three weeks hadn't really done much for me except employ new tactics, maybe they needed different torturers}_ could keep me from holding my tongue. "I have been cooperating, _sir_, whether you know it or not."

The other frowned, twirling a metal pipe between his fingers, an irritated expression on his face. "...so I see." The metal pipe became still, and he walked closer to me, eyes narrowing.

I shrunk away now, but it didn't actually help much, since all four appendages were shackled. I was eying the pipe carefully, seeing the other male ready it... he seemed to be calculating something. Eying my shin.

"So I'll force you to cooperate." Not even a few seconds later, the metal pipe rammed into the middle of my shin, and I heard quite the solid crack. I quickly gritted my teeth together, cringing away slightly, and whether I liked it or not, some pained tears escaped my eyes.

Well, shit. This sort of thing hadn't been pulled on me before.

Just as the interrogator leaned in closer to me, gripping my neck with one rather powerful hand, he started to hiss, "Now, be a good prisoner and tell me what the weaknesses of Superjail are!"

I couldn't have really replied right away. I was still in quite a bit of pain, taking in quick gasps of air to keep myself from doing anything stupid. The other was becoming quickly frustrated; this had apparently lost its fun days ago. Then things just started to go... well...

...strangely. Wonky. Et cetera.

I guess.

Just as this was going on, I could barely hear the sound of boots against stone, and the interrogator stiffened up, backing away from me so he could see the door better. While I was busy muttering curses under my breath, desperately trying to either bend over to touch my now broken leg or jerk my leg up so I could still get a good grip on it _{and failing}_, I didn't see the yellow-haired adult who had just stopped by the door.

"G-General Castor, s-sir!" The interrogator almost seemed to be panicking. "What is it?"

Now, I didn't know who Castor was, but I looked up to see the young adult now. _The younger of the Twins!_ I hadn't had a reason to stay silent - or really, utterly scared - until now. He looked vaguely nervous, fidgeting with his hands slightly, but nonetheless, the young Twin spoke up.

"Greetings to you, soldier." He glanced inside the cell. "I trust that the Warden is here?"

"Yes sir. I was just starting to interrogate him-"

"If I may speak to him myself?" The other didn't seem to be relaxing much, still fidgeting. "I might have better luck."

The soldier was becoming nervous and vaguely confused now, too. "Of course, sir." He produced some keys, opening the cell door, and Castor stepped inside, being handed the keys as he came, and the other was also leaving. "I shall wait down the hall."

The other simply nodded, watching the soldier go, presumably, before he walked over to me. I narrowed my eyes, recoiling away and trying to press myself against the wall. "Well, _Castor_, I can assure you that you won't have much better luck. You of all people should know _that_," I hissed, but the other didn't seem to be paying that much attention.

He didn't even respond to me, instead taking the keys and placing them into the locks on the shackles, starting with the ankles before moving up, and I landed rather ungracefully, letting out a quiet hiss. "What do you think you're going to do?"

I was hissing other things at him along the same lines, before he eventually turned a sharp glare in my direction, calm demeanor not nearly as obvious. "Be. _Quiet_." He frowned. "I did not want to be a part of this any more than you did."

"What's _that_ supposed to mea-"

"I told you to be quiet!" Briefly, I wondered what our conversation would sound like to any bypassers, but then I decided to not think on that so much and focus more on what the other was doing. I couldn't let my guard down. Castor seemed to be trying to regain his calm demeanor now, and he glanced around, as if expecting somebody to come by at any moment. "Do you want to escape or not?"

Now, _that_ was a crazy idea if I had ever heard one. "What?"

The other shook his head, as if disgusted by my obvious confusion. "I do not have time for this..." Quickly, he grabbed my arm.

_{.end of chapter 8.}_

-your Warden


	9. That is NOT a good idea in any way

{.chapter o9.}

I'm comin'... home? yeah, sure, let's go with that

_Thursday, August 7th, 2025; the day on which the rumors of __**everything**__ had been exaggerated_

"What the hell was that for?"

Sure, I probably wasn't even particularly strong enough to even move very quickly by this point, but I was appropriately shocked. Only moments after I had been roughly grabbed, Castor had teleported the both of us somewhere outside; in the battlefield I had been in only weeks before. And anyway, at least the rebels had the common decency to let me wear my tailcoat and everything, despite it being _very_ hot outside of the base _{my hat went a.w.o.l., though.}_, but either way. I don't believe I mentioned that earlier. Anyway, I turned my gaze to the younger of the twins, who seemed to be a bit less nervous now that we were away from the rebellion base.

...which, needless to say, confused me more than a bit. Not that anything was really supposed to make sense, but...

"Never mind that. Surely it would matter to you more that you are not dead." The other frowned, still gripping my arm tightly to keep me upright.

I glanced away from him as I rolled my eyes in a bit of a half-circle, folding my arms across my chest, as best as I could. "Well, that's nice and all, but I sincerely and strongly doubt that you're doing this out of the kindness of your heart." I paused for a moment. "...no offense."

"Of course not."

Well, that made me feel a whole lot better. Not. I mean, it wasn't like I really felt great in the first place, being bloodied and bruised _{and with a broken leg, mind you}_ and all. Glancing over at him, I cocked an eyebrow."You know, it would've been easier if you'd let me die."

The other laughed slightly. "No, not really."

He started moving before I could really make a good response, or even a question, really. I growled under my breath as I forced myself to follow him, eyes narrowing as I did so.

It only took a few minutes for me to speak up again _{read: a really long time; we made good progress across the field}_, though. "...okay." I frowned, fixating my gaze on the ground as I thought on this for a moment. "So... why did you even magic me out of there, anyway? I swear, it really would've been easier..." _Not that I'm saying I'm not at all unimportant, I just feel that it needs to be said._

Well, by this point, Superjail was well within sight. Good. I guess. With any luck, I could actually make it there in... uh... one piece, relatively. However, the younger of the Twins didn't respond to my question, which irked me slightly.

"This is as far as I can go. Do not mention this. To _anyone._"

"Not even the Future Warden?"

Castor paused for a moment before snapping, "_Especially_ not him."

With that, he disappeared in a green light, leaving me alone, and I promptly fell to the ground with a solid thud. After a bout of cursing and wincing, I managed to stand up, albeit forcing all of my weight on my relatively uninjured leg, still muttering a few curses under my breath. _Yeah, sure, save my ass and then ditch me immediately thereafter._

Now that I didn't have anyone to try talking to, I was forced to focus on the grueling task of getting back to the subsidiary. It seemed pretty far away now, but wait until I actually started getting a move on. Then it'd feel like forever.

~.x.~

Well... so far as I was concerned, it _did_ take forever.

It was rather dark by the time I was close to the Superjail-esque base, and I was honestly _amazed_ that I hadn't simply 'dropped dead' yet, so to speak. By now, I'd managed to mostly ignore my broken shin, though that may have been a... stupid move, I'll admit. But, well... whatever gets me back in one piece works, so.

I more or less limped over to one of the pieces of rubble that looked like a tank _{wow, we took out a tank? when?}_, grabbing hold of one of the pieces of it to stay upright, but I allowed myself to lean against it, rest for a brief moment.

Then I saw something move in the shadows in front of me.

So much for _that_ idea.

I straightened up slightly, staring at the area where I'd seen movement, tensing up slightly. I couldn't at all see in this darkness, but I knew that I'd seen someone. I was also hearing said someone, too, since it was abnormally silent now, but I couldn't tell what exactly was going on.

That just figured. The voice sounded familiar, but from this distance, I wouldn't have been able to place it.

For curiosity's sake, though, I removed myself from the remains of the tank and slowly dragged myself closer to the source of the voice, making sure that I didn't make too much noise. I didn't want my head lopped off. Or something equally horrible.

"...can't believe I trusted him to go alone." Nope. Voice still wasn't any more familiar than before. What he was talking about did, though, but maybe it was a coincidence. "Where is he?"

Actually, now it seemed to click now. There was something desperate about the voice, and I recognized it as being similar to my own. _Well, that answers that._ The Future Warden? Worried? Huh. And what was he doing out here, anyway? I'd say that I was more interested in that than anything, but it was all very... interesting. "Future Warden?"

"What?" I heard the other turn around, taking a step back. Well, I assume he took a step back. "Who's there?" Before I could even reply, it seemed that the other recognized me as well, even in the darkness. "W-Warden?" He sounded appropriately surprised, and he looked me over before noticing that one of my legs wasn't quite right and took my arm in a preemptive manner. I quietly hissed as he touched some of my wounds, and he loosened his grip slightly. "You're... you're back?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

The other brushed off this statement with ease. "You look like shit." It amazed me briefly how he could state that so readily, but I didn't really point this out. That was his job, not mine.

I could still be sarcastic, though. "_Thaaaanks_. You too." That much was true, though - he seemed more stressed and distracted than usual, if my taking him by surprise was any indication.

"Where _were_ you? Don't you remember that I _trusted_ you enough to let you go alone, whatever the hell you were doing?" I was still really surprised that he cared this much about my disappearance, though. Okay, sure, I could have died, but he didn't seem all that interested in that angle, not so far as I could tell.

Even worse, he was starting to affect me, too. The stressfulness and worry, I mean. "Of course I remember. We talked about it..." I shook my head. "I was caught by the rebels. They tried to interrogate me." Quickly, before the Future Warden could ask me if I had told them anything important, I tacked on, "It didn't work."

The Future Warden wasn't irritated anymore, though. Just... concerned. "...good. I suppose. So... did you... learn anything that we could use?"

"I..." I faltered. Yes, I had. I had learned that at least one of the Twins was a general of the rebellion. However, what Castor had told me came across my thoughts - do not mention it to anyone. I guess I kind of owed him that much. "...no. Being a prisoner, I was mostly kept in my little cell."

"I guess that makes sense." He sighed, frowning. "It was worth a try, though." The other was now looking at my wounds. "You _jackass_. I don't really care if you could've potentially learned something from the rebels; you should've run back. I would've let you."

"Sorry." I wasn't too terribly sorry, really, and I didn't really believe the other. He didn't sound too confident in what he was really saying, either.

"You at least came back in one piece." His frown deepened. "That much can be-" He fell silent, tightening his grip on me, despite my weak protests. He seemed to notice that my condition had worsened considerably; I felt rather faint now, and the other cursed under his breath as I stumbled. "Just when I had something _important_ to say..."

~.x.~

"Well, isn't this just inconvenient..."

"I'm sure she'll understand once she actually sees it, sir."

"Even so. I told her that I'd contact her as soon as possible."

"What?"

I was back in the infirmary. Hm. It explained why everything seemed colder and quiet. I didn't feel nearly as out of it now, but I will assure you that I certainly wasn't in much of a condition to do anything too out of the ordinary. Er... well, actually, I take back that statement, but I don't know how else to really put it. Anyway, my awakening seemed to be unexpected, as the Future Warden turned around on his heel to face me.

"Oh. That was... earlier than I expected."

The Future Warden seemed to be a bit surprised, and beside him, Jared was already slowly moving away. "I'll take my leave now, then."

The taller male glanced over at the other, who was walking away. "A-actually, wait... ehn, never mind." He glanced over at me, fidgeting with his hands, frowning slightly. After a brief pause, he sheepishly said, "I... I _really_ didn't expect you to come to this early."

"Yeah, I could kind of guess that already." I forced myself to sit up, and found that it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it should've been. Well, I'd ask _that_ question on my mind later. It wasn't nearly as interesting as whatever the hell he and Jared had been talking about. Speaking of which, I made sure to make that the next thing I asked. "So, what _were_ you and Jared talking about?"

"...that was the _other_ thing I don't know how to..." He trailed off, as if trying to think over this. "...it's a little too complicated to explain. Especially right now..."

"Well, try. It can't be that horribly shocking." _Except for, well, you were talking to __**Jared**__ about it, but that's not nearly as important._

"All right... while you were... missing in action, I contacted the Mistress of Ultraprison." I guess I looked rather surprised, as the other quickly added, "We lost a lot of men in the ambush, which didn't go all too well, obviously. The rebels were forced back, but only a few of our own returned. So you see the problem."

Yeah, sure, I saw the problem. _We're asking for the __**Mistress**__ for help._ Well, that, and we were dwindling in numbers... _that torturer-slash-interrogator was right. This really isn't going so well for us._ "But... you're going to resort to asking the _Mistress_ for..."

"...yes...? It made enough sense. We've already discussed it."

This was making less and less sense to me. Ultraprison... ah, yes, the prison for females that was out in outer space. And, from what I remembered from _our_ last encounter, the Mistress was a bitch. Not that it wasn't to say that I _didn't_ enjoy messing with her, she was just... serious. And _majorly_ bitchy.

"...you really think this is a good idea." _I_ sure didn't. The Mistress certainly would've been the last person I would ever turn to for help. And, for that matter, it's not like I ever _needed_ any form of 'help' whatsoever. Not that I would admit it even if I _did_.

"_Yes_." And, in turn, the Future Warden sounded highly confident in this decision. And I guess I couldn't really argue with him if he had already talked to her about this and everything, but...

...I sighed. "..._great_. Well, if I can't argue about it yet, can I at least be there to see her face filled with shock?"

The other snickered for a moment. "Emphasis on the 'yet'." He sighed, though, regaining his calm demeanor. "I suppose. Mistress doesn't quite know that you're even here, but... that was because I didn't bother trying to warn her." He shrugged. "Well, we should go now. I told her I'd contact her as soon as possible, and I didn't expect that it would take this long."

"Right."

Instead of just running off and ditching me, he helped me get up - this was kind of strange, so far as I was concerned, but I _really_ didn't feel like questioning him. With little else to really discuss, we disappeared into the hallways.

_{.end of chapter 9.}_

-your Warden


	10. Why did I include this?

{.chapter 1o.}

this _really_ wasn't at all what you expected?

_Friday, August 8th, 2025; the day on which we spoke to the queen bitch_

The Future Warden and I didn't talk all that much as we walked off in the direction of... who knows where. It'd be really stupid if there was a room just for transmissions, but then again, it kind of made sense. Well, I'd find out soon enough.

I wasn't concerned about that, though. I had other things on my mind. "Future Warden."

I was still trying to figure out how I was going to ask this, but the Future Warden was a little quick to respond. "Yes?"

Well, so much for trying my hand at planning spontaneously. "I still don't get it. Why are we basically asking Ultraprison for help? I know that we don't have as many troops - two people have told me _that_ already - but we have enough soldiers to stave the rebellion off... right?"

The other's face twitched slightly. "I suppose. But we've also managed to pretty much break them. I was watching them earlier before you even came back - they're leaving. I don't know where."

"Uh, okay." That wasn't helping much. I did remember a whole lot of talk about 'regrouping', though. Or something like that. "But is there anything _else_ I should know?"

"...ahm..." The other fidgeted slightly, pace slowing down. "...I... yes. I actually got rid of the group of rebels, found that they were going back to their other rebellion friends, and they're forming allies with other countries. They're trying to make this war global. So, we're basically kind of out-manned. And outgunned."

He frowned, looking rather embarrassed. "Kind of out-_everythinged_. I've been trying to do some things to kind of balance it out, improvements and... maybe some robotics... but it will take some time. Who better to ask than Ultraprison?"

"I still can't figure out how you convinced her." I could kind of see what he was doing. Still, though...

"Bribes." He laughed for a moment or two. "Most of which involving, 'look, I'll let you set up some base here on Earth somewhere, and I won't bother you too much'."

...actually, that did sound kind of funny, but I didn't comment on that, still mulling over the fact that everything was going downhill. He turned and went through the doorway to some room, and I followed.

It was a dimly lit room, with some machinery near the front. By the time I got in there, the Future Warden was already quick to type in something... I guess... no... I don't even know what he was typing in. Presumably something so that he could contact the Mistress.

Well, whatever it was, it worked; a screen lit up, and though it was fairly dark, a very familiar woman appeared. The Mistress - I could already recognize that through her serious expression, though it seemed to have turn somewhat callous now, and then her rose-lensed glasses. She wasn't, however, wearing her gaudy outfit, though.

Like I said. Well, whatever. The Future Warden was in front of the screen, hands behind his back. The Mistress was the first to speak. "You're later than I expected."

The other sighed. "Yes. I know. The situation isn't getting much better down here, but I have a part of the problem you may recognize." He glanced back at me - I was well out of her line of sight right now, and I had wanted to stay that way, but the Future Warden motioned me forward, and so I had little choice but to simply cooperate.

"Oh, so now I'm a part of the problem," I muttered irritably, wanting to shoot a glare at him, but I honestly didn't care all too much about that.

The Mistress quirked an eyebrow, attention now turned to me. "You... you never told me about _this_, Warden."

"Er, I can explain this," both of us said at about the same time, and we exchanged a glance before I looked away at the ground. So, the Future Warden took over for me. "...so I'll explain this. So, put briefly... Warden over here used some time machine he made, which, of course, backfired him and sent him fifteen years in the 'future' to now. Best not to think about it too hard. Anyway, I already have a plan in mind to implement as soon as we decide on what the plan actually is."

"I see." It was kind of unnerving - I had just been introduced to someone who was somehow more serious and businesslike than the Future Warden. Actually, I guess it's more like I finally had someone like that to compare her to. Either way, it was still really unnerving. "That being said, what _is_ your plan?"

"I need to get to Superjail. I can have better control of everyone there, it's relatively safe, and, if I'm not mistaken, I have a copy of my time traveling machine somewhere in there." The Future Warden shrugged. "It's not exactly the best plan I've ever had in mind, I'll admit, but it's the only one I have."

I wasn't necessarily wanting to be any part of this now, and had been edging away from the screen and Future Warden, until I was pretty much against the wall. The other glanced at me for a moment before shrugging, turning his attention back to the Mistress, who seemed to be contemplating this. "...very well," she replied after a few seconds. "I understand that. I trust that you are in a safe enough position to get to Superjail without any assistance, right?"

_This is the most boring and sane conversation I've heard in a few months._ I folded my arms across my chest, looking at the Future Warden, who was apparently trying to figure this. "Are we?"

"Well, technically not." Despite this, he smiled. "But I've scared off the rebels, for the most part. I can 'retreat' to Superjail, so to speak, with only a few problems."

The Mistress nodded. "In how short a time?"

This made the other pause. "...er... probably... at least... a week? In a week, I can get everyone and some equipment out and get back to Superjail. And that's if we're lucky enough to not be attacked."

"And if you're attacked?"

Well, at least _someone_ was prepared for the worst case scenario. The Future Warden frowned nervously, folding his arms across his chest. "It would be... hard to... define. I wouldn't be at all opposed to getting the hell out of there, but..."

I spoke up quickly. "But what? I mean, we might be able to get out in one of those... whatever... aircrafts, but if we get shot down, I'd say that we're kind of really shit out of luck."

He didn't even glare at me; he honestly just looked a bit more nervous and resigned. "_Thank_ you for wording what I was implying."

"Welcome."

The Mistress just let out a sigh, one arm folding across her chest. "Never mind that. I'm sure the two of you can bicker enough to come to a solution on your own." Talk about veiling displeasure. "I'd be willing to wait somewhere around Superjail, should you be able to return. I will not, however, stay for long if you are not there."

"Fair enough, I suppose," the Future Warden replied, and I frowned. Well, at least they could obviously cooperate well enough to come up with a plan, and by this point, I was pretty much all for a plan of some sort. "One week's time. I, along with my remaining soldiers, will be there in a week's time. Nothing more."

"Good." Her eyes seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, but eh, who cared. "I will be there as well. You should be, or the alliance is off."

"Ac_knowledged_."

With that, the Mistress pressed something, the line disconnected, and the screen was blank. The Future Warden shrugged, arms still folded across his chest, eyebrows raised as he looked fairly impressed. "Well! That went pretty well, so far as diplomacy goes."

"Even after fifteen years, she _still_ seems like a condescending bitch." Well, I guess she didn't mind the Future Warden, and I had done a pretty good job of keeping silent and simply observing, but still. The Future Warden was looking at me, only one brow raised now, looking rather... well... I don't really know what the word is. "Fine. I guess she's more willing to listen, but that was probably because I wasn't nearly as talkative as I could've been. You couldn't have tried convincing some nation that you weren't nearly as bad as you are?"

"Hah! _No._ I... well... it... there's... it would be _impossible_ to try anything like _that_ now." He waved this off rather dismissively, glancing back at me as he started to walk off. "Come on, let's go! I'm going to be _very_ busy forcing _this_ together, I'm sure...!"

Well, all the more power to him if he knew that he was getting into something really complex and stressful for everyone.

_{.end of chapter 1o.}_

-your Warden


	11. Familiar ground

{.chapter 11.}

why hasn't anything gone to hell yet?

_Thursday, August 14th, 2025; the day on which we fled like a bat out of hell_

And indeed were we busy.

The building was definitely _much_ more busy now that the Future Warden seemed to have a plan in mind. He was actually a very good and decisive leader when it came down to it - everyone seemed to have a task set for them that they were expected to accomplish. And they _worked_.

As Future Warden put it? "We're going back to Superjail, and I'm hellbent on getting there as soon as possible."

One week. We had had one week to get everything together and go.

We were making good progress, too. _Very_ good progress. The Future Warden had basically put himself in charge of everything - some of the soldiers were moving equipment into the aircrafts we planned to leave in. Chemicals were being moved out, along with medical supplies and other such things; on the other hand, most of the staff was busy supervising everything - that, or keeping watch to make sure that we wouldn't be taken by surprise by any rebels that may have been coming to attack us. And then there was the Future Warden, who was also busy training some of his best soldiers for who _knows_ what.

I, myself, didn't have anything to really _do_, so I just kind of... helped. Half of the time I was just busy hauling things into the aircrafts. The other half of the time, though, I was trying my best to keep watch and just.. whatever I could do. It was kind of difficult, but... I tried to do everything when possible.

For the most part, I think I was just trying to keep myself preoccupied. I was... well... not worried, not really concerned, just...

...anxious, I guess would be the word. Unsure, for sure.

We'd been lucky that we hadn't been attacked yet. I guess we really _had_ made the rebels think twice, but if I were them, I really would've just struck right away. I mean... they knew we were getting weak. I guess they didn't exactly know for certain if we would have backup _{technically, we will? I guess?}_, and I _suppose_ that that would be quite the deterring factor, but still.

Shadow of a doubt, right?

At that moment, I'd been keeping watch. I was in some fairly abandoned area of the subsidiary, and as I had already suggested, it was a fairly empty room. A sniper rifle, a good deal of ammunition in some open box just beside it, and then pretty much nothing else. Just a sparse, boring room.

Really, I should've left and let someone else take over. I didn't have any point to being there. No one was going to come - we were making good enough progress that we could leave today if we hurried a bit - we were perfectly fine, at least, for the most part. I think. I didn't entirely know, actually; I hadn't seen the Future Warden at all during the week after we'd contacted the Mistress. He was just... very busy, with everything.

I frowned, leaning over the railing separating the 'room' from a rather long drop, glancing around the area. Even with a scope, I couldn't see anyone. For once, though, I didn't feel any real sense of foreboding. So far as I had been concerned, we had just done a _really_ good job of keeping the rebels away.

Well, that was before I heard an explosion.

...and that was _also_ before I _felt_ the explosion.

At first, my initial reaction was to simply brush it off. It could've been the Future Warden screwing around with... I don't know, C-4 or something. We probably have that lying around somewhere, actually...

...I'll have to look into that later.

Er, anyway.

Then I actually _tried_ to think about it.

Something must have been going wrong. Explosions don't happen without reason, except for in the case that they _do_. I had no idea as to what could've been going on - I just figured it was a good enough idea to not think it over too much - but I turned around, grabbing the rifle and some ammunition before running off, loading it as I ran.

Smart idea? No, of course not.

I wouldn't have been able to brood on that, either way, as I heard a voice behind me. Following me?

"Warden!"

I glanced back, stumbling as I did so, but the other had grabbed a hold of me before I could continue to run off. I turned around as the older male would allow me. "Future Warden? What the hell is-"

"Can't explain right now," the other replied hurriedly, "We need to get out. Right now!" He must've ran off long before I had - he was panting, and seemed to be panicking.

Something was _very_ wrong.

"But what is-" I started to ask, but once more, I was interrupted.

"Are you even _listening_ to me?" He yelled, grip tightening significantly. "Quit asking questions and follow me!"

I blinked, and then nodded slowly, and immediately thereafter, the Future Warden was back to running, now having let go of me. "What-" I shook my head, following him.

~.x.~

The Future Warden dragged me into one of the aircrafts, becoming increasingly nervous now. He'd been muttering to himself, and as soon as we got inside, he glanced over at me. "If you really want to know what's going on, take a look outside when we leave. Meanwhile, as for myself..." He shook his head. "I'll be back."

I watched him rush off, and I frowned, waiting for a few moments before I decided that my curiosity would win out over my better judgment.

With a sigh, I disappeared over to one of the windows on the side of the aircraft, fidgeting. "Warden to all crafts; Warden to all crafts. Prepare for launch."

And, not even a few seconds later, all of the aircrafts had been lifted into the air. The lift into the air had not been calm, I could say that much. But once the shock was over, we were high enough in the air for me to grasp the scale of the situation.

Now I knew why I hadn't seen any rebels.

There was a _sea_ of rebel troops surrounding the subsidiary we were now far above. They were intent on destroying the entire area - they had set up bombs around the Superjail subsidiary, and a few of the rebels were rushing inside, possibly hoping to kill any stragglers and ransack the place. I shuddered - I knew things had been bad, put simply, I just...

...I never knew _how_ bad.

"There's little we can do about it now."

There he went again. I spun around _{before berating myself that I should __**really**__ get used to the Future Warden's sneakiness}_, and found myself glaring at the Future Warden. "God _damn_ it! Do you _have_ to do that?"

The other gave me a half-assed, lop-sided grin for a second or so before it disappeared. "Yes." He frowned, glancing down at the large amount of troops. "...it shouldn't have come down to this. Not this early."

The Future Warden was quiet, and I backed away, only a little bit away. "...you didn't know they would attack?"

He tensed up, hands curling into fists. "Of course I _knew_," he growled, glaring at me out of the corner of his eyes _{or so I assumed}_. "They would've come eventually. I was just hoping that they would come to destroy the place after we left." The Future Warden pulled out some device, pressed something on it, and something down below blew into a spectacular mess of laser-induced flames.

"There is no way that this could've been a coincidence," I said after a few seconds of silence, and the Future Warden glanced over at me.

"If this has anything to do with the twins again..."

"...yeah... it does..."

"...I don't want to hear it. I just don't."

With that, he turned around and walked off, leaving me behind as I stared at him, somewhat surprised. He didn't want to acknowledge the fact. I could recognize that much.

But I had more important things to think about. Like Superjail.

~.x.~

I guess I must've really irked my future self, because I didn't see him at all after that.

Then again, I never left my new spot at the window unless if I absolutely had to do something, but that was fairly rare, so I mainly stayed put, waiting for something to look familiar.

That was likely something that was too much for me to ask, because I immediately remembered that the only thing I could go by was a volcano inside a volcano, and that Superjail was surrounded by plenty of illusions or whatnot. To, you know, keep the secrecy of the whole place.

So much for that, though. Either we were nowhere _close_ to Superjail, or the secrecy of it all was now gone. I didn't actually know - and, for that matter, I had no idea where exactly Superjail was in the world.

...huh. That kind of made me feel very, very lost. So. Uh. Just very lost?

However, I did know that it took at least five hours for us to leave the now presumably obliterated subsidiary and get this close to Superjail. Or this far. But then again, there was plenty of math that went into that sort of thing.

I wasn't nearly as interested in that, though. I was still on the lookout for Superjail - so far as I was concerned, the situation would certainly be less stressful as soon as someone _{preferably me}_ was in or on familiar territory.

Luckily for me - and someone's sanity - it only took a few more minutes _{likely half an hour, but nonetheless}_ for two volcanoes to appear out in the distance. Instantly, I became more attentive, standing up straighter and keeping my eyes fixed on the 'doubla-volcano'.

~.x.~

It didn't take all that long, in comparison, to land within the confines of Superjail, either.

_It's great to be back on familiar ground,_ had been my first initial reaction, but then as everyone that had been on board filed into the construct, I glanced around. Superjail looked just as I remembered it being fifteen years ago... but now it had an eerie vibe to it now. Kind of like I wasn't supposed to be here. Besides the obvious fact that I really wasn't supposed to be in the first place, it just seemed... different.

Colder.

Call me crazy, but I _built_ this place. I of all people should know when something's off about it.

I turned around as soon as I heard the Future Warden walking out of the ship, and for once, I wasn't angry with him for whatever reason or another. "What happened?"

"...what happened?" He seemed to not understand me, or what I was asking. I frowned, glancing around.

"To Superjail. It doesn't seem... right."

The other shook his head. "I haven't come here since the war started. So, it would be no wonder that it doesn't seem right." He walked in front of me, in the direction of one of the many entrance-ways into Superjail, motioning me forward. "Come on. You can go be nostalgic and I still have work to do. Okay?"

I frowned, glancing around. "...sure." The other was leaving without another word, and under my breath, I muttered, "That's just fan-_fuckin'_-tastic."

On second thought, maybe I'd try to look for his time machine plans. Maybe. It seemed better than any of the other plans I had.

_{.end of chapter 11.}_

-your Warden


	12. We're not tempting fate at all!

{.chapter 12.}

hi, now please get the fuck out

_Friday, August 15th, 2025; the day on which I could swear that Murphy's Law took effect_

Needless to say, I didn't get too far with _that_ little endeavor. Can't really say why; bored, got side-tracked, got frustrated and simply gave up, never got around to it... take your pick, because I sure as hell don't know why. Or at least certainly wouldn't write it down.

I couldn't bring myself to focus too much on Superjail. It bothered me; what in the hell had happened? I'm not saying that Superjail never was a rather creepy place to be, but I could say that I never exactly felt scared for my _life_, either. Not like I did now.

It could've been the weight of the situation. I can fully admit that I didn't quite understand it entirely until now... a few hours ago... maybe yesterday... well, whenever it was didn't matter. It wasn't just the situation, I knew, though it had a very great part in it.

Just... like I said. Superjail just looked... creepy. Dim or even broken lights lined the halls, it was difficult to see, and it was in quite a mess. I could pick out the remains of explosions, as well as bloodstains, both on any and all sides of the rooms.

I just wanted out.

I shuddered as I forced myself to simply try to ignore it as best as I could or close my eyes. Mostly, I just kept my eyes closed; I couldn't stop myself from trying to figure out what had happened, and it just so figured that I'd come up with worst-case scenarios. It was a little difficult to wander blindly, as it were, but... nothing happened.

Still, though. Something had to have happened to force the Future Warden out and whatever it was, I probably didn't want to know.

For once, though, the Future Warden was having convenient timing. "Ultraprison's gotten here. Come on out."

"Will do," I replied quietly, though I wasn't entirely sure that the other heard me, but who cared at that point?

~.x.~

Only a few minutes later, I got out into the courtyard, finding that the Ultraprison ship was indeed here. The Future Warden - who was just in front of the ship, and was fairly visible, not being all too far away from the doors I'd just left - glanced back at me upon hearing me approach. He allowed himself a brief smile as I stopped beside him, folding my arms across my chest.

"Ah, you're just in time," he said, not paying all that much attention to the craft. "Just one thing." I didn't give him a response, and he waited for a moment before continuing on. "Warden, don't be an idiot. I know you and the Mistress are still going to want to kick each other's ass, but that's the last thing we need."

Almost defensively, I raised my shoulders, glancing over at him. "I get it, I get it. That'd _probably_ severely complicate the situation, et cetera, et cetera."

"_Promise_ me you won't act like a stupid git."

I sighed. "No guarantees. I could try, though."

That was pretty much where our conversation ended, as a rather familiar ship - well, mini-ship. Spherical and pink with weird... leg-like... landing... things. It... it's difficult to describe. - landed just in front of us. I frowned, taking a few steps back, not at all wanting to be here now.

The Mistress was quick to get out, and I kept my gaze on her level, eyes hardening into a distrustful glare. As she stepped down, she glanced at both of us, eyes narrowing as she noticed me. "Warden."

The Future Warden nodded, probably earning the title of the 'calmest one here'. "Mistress."

_I_, however, took the more _creative_ approach. And, probably, you know, the more irritable approach. "Well, at least you didn't crashland this time," I oh-so-kindly greeted through gritted teeth.

The Mistress shot me a glare, and as for the Future Warden, he quickly hit my shin, and I let out a quiet yelp, glaring at the offender, who now seemed as calm as ever. The smooth bastard. He folded his arms across his chest now as well, ignoring me like as if I hadn't done anything stupid. "So, your staff are...?"

"In the ship, managing the inmates," the Mistress replied in an equally level voice. "Why?"

"No particular reason, for now. However, I would like to get straight to... ah, training your inmates for combat. I don't expect any attacks yet, but the sooner we can get more soldiers, the better."

Before the Mistress could say anything, I muttered something under my breath, quickly speaking up while I could. "No attacks yet, fingers crossed. Future Warden, they _saw_ us retreat back here. If they have any good trackers, they probably know exactly where Superjail is, and are probably on their way right now to attack."

The Future Warden actually looked kind of impressed with my abnormally sound reasoning, as evidenced by both of his eyebrows raising. "You... that... good point."

The Mistress frowned. "Unless the situation has changed, I doubt a small band of soldiers would risk their lives doing something that stupid." She glanced over at the Future Warden, who grimaced slightly, pulling back. "...so I would assume?"

He forced a grin, laughing nervously. "Heh... heh... well... er... I... guess you... didn't see. Er..."

"Put simply, we're fucked," I translated. "Not that he'd ever want to admit it."

Future Warden frowned, and he muttered something remarkably unintelligible under his breath as he decided to glower at the ground as opposed to me. "They regrouped." He covered his eyes with a hand, muttering under his breath, "I can't believe it still hurts to even admit it." With a quick sigh, he shook his head, removing his hand. "So. They probably have... something like... well... forget it. We're fucked."

"So we already discussed." The Mistress frowned, not very impressed with either of us - as she should've been. Would've been in the first place? Eh, whichever sounds better.

"Therefore!" The Future Warden glanced at the Ultraprison ship before looking back at Superjail, and then he turned his gaze back to the Mistress. "Get your inmates and your staff. Alert me when they're ready."

The Mistress glared at him for a moment before grudgingly complying, and with this, the Future Warden motioned me towards him as he left. With little choice, I shrugged and caught up with him. "Hm?"

"Since I'm going to be... well, rather busy with the inmates, I'm leaving you in charge of keeping watch."

"Really? Even after what happe-"

"They knew which side to come from. So there. But look, just follow me. I've got a special radar room here too that you'll likely be getting _very_ familiar with."

"That..." I sighed, shaking my head. "...fine. Okay."

~.x.~

"What in the _hell_?"

The radar room was certainly... well, intimidating. It was a spacious and dark room, with large, old-looking screens that were rather dusty from lack of use and proper maintenance. In the middle of the room was some kind of control panel, with one of those swervy chairs in the center of it.

...I didn't even know a room like this even _existed_ in Superjail.

Well, then the Future Warden answered that 'question'. "I added this on once the war began. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be very useful then, but now it should work."

I raised an eyebrow. "I take it this was your 'work' yesterday?"

"Mm, somewhat." He shrugged, staring pointedly at the control panel. "Brief rundown? The switch turns on the screens. Don't remember which one, though. Green dots are our soldiers, red dots aren't. Then there's some lever that is the alarm. Do not touch it unless you have reason. And everything else? Don't touch it."

I guess I must've been giving him my best 'why the hell not?' face, which I guess he took as a challenge, because he frowned slightly. "No, really. Just don't."

Well, who was I to argue?

~.x.~

He almost had me convinced.

He almost had me convinced that maybe the rebels wouldn't attack us. Not today.

Right?

That's what I thought. Almost. But I didn't let down my guard - I was told to keep watch. I was going to do precisely that until instructed to do otherwise. Normally this kind of thing would go against all I stood for, but hey, the Future Warden was actually listening to me for once. I wasn't going to let _that_ go to waste.

On the radars, the ever-so-ominous red dots appeared, and I froze for a moment. "They're here?" Well, that was about to turn into a 'holy shit they're coming' moment _really_ quick. I faltered for a moment, gripping the lever.

Then the alarms sounded.

_{.end of chapter 12.}_

-your Warden


	13. I told you!

{.chapter 13.}

this is the worst plan I've ever heard!

_Friday, August 15th, 2025; the day on which my suspicions were proved correct and someone, somewhere, died_

"What's going on?"

The Future Warden was very quick to arrive in the radar room, apparently having already expected this to happen or just so happened to be close-by in the first place. Anyhow, he appeared only a few minutes after I had sounded the alarm. Looking at me, he repeated in a calmer tone of voice, "What's the situation?"

I... well, I wasn't nearly as calm as he was, to say the least. "Hell if I know!" Knowing that this wasn't _really_ the case, I took a deep breath, shaking my head, as if trying to clear my thoughts. "I-I just saw nearby hostiles and triggered the alarm, j-just in case."

"How far away are they?"

Unable to discern whether or not he was talking to me or talking to himself, I just shrugged, making a noncommittal noise as I did so. Apparently, the Future Warden didn't really know either, because I could tell that he was expecting an answer _{don't ask me how}_, but he didn't ask me again, instead leaning forward, carefully avoiding any controls on the panel, staring at the radars.

When he couldn't figure it out either, he let out a rather irritated sigh, frowning. That made two of u- I let out a surprised yelp when the other pointedly nudged me. "Get out."

Talk about pushy.

He forcefully shoved me, and I hissed, getting up and out of the way quickly. Immediately, he fell into the chair and took a sweeping glance around the control panel. After a moment, he pulled up a computer from the left panel, scanning it.

Just to be safe, I did as well - on the bottom right corner, it held a mini-map of the surrounding area showing the same thing, and to the left side, there were plenty of buttons _{well, 'buttons'}_ to be pressed. There were some things in regards to whatever it was that the Future Warden was looking for - there was also a section completely for weaponry and battles and such. I didn't pay so so much attention to that, though.

A few button presses later, and the Future Warden smirked slightly. Whatever he found amusing, I was clearly missing. "We're good for the moment. Now, let's see..." He scanned the screen again before turning his head back to the control panel, pressing a button.

I wasn't listening too terribly closely to him, honestly. I mean, why would I have cared anyway, since I was there? That was my argument. However... I fidgeted nervously with my hands, glancing over at the Future Warden. "...how far away _is_ the rebellion?"

"A bit more than fifteen kilometers, I think. Enough time for us to be able to _say_ we planned."

My frown deepened at this. I had been right after all.

~.x.~

...I think everything kind of went to hell after that, but I can't really say for sure because from that point onwards, everything was happening way too fast for me too even process what was going on. You know, compared to everything else.

...which honestly doesn't make that much sense, given what I _do_ remember. Ah well... where was... oh yeah, yeah right. Back to my point.

"Warden! Keep an eye on those radars!" Future Warden snapped, both hands busy as he was doing who knows what - issuing orders, I think.

"I already _am_!" I snapped back.

"...well, _keep_ doing it! Alert me if something goes wrong!"

"Define _wrong_!"

The Future Warden didn't reply - if it was because he was busy at the moment or deliberately ignoring me, I wasn't sure, probably because I was once again reminded of how calm he was under this kind of pressure. Me? Not so much. Even if I was doing something as easy as keeping an eye on the radars, there were so many radars... and dots...

"Mistress! Get down here; you know your women better than I do!" A pause, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other tensing up slightly. "_Yes_, like now." He sighed. "I'm sure she can do her job _just as well_, if not _better_, without you. Your place is down _here_, telling _me_ what to do, if that makes you feel better."

Oh god. This was going to be a long day. Days. However long it would take us to get this little fight over with.

"Where's Jared?" I asked after a moment, not glancing up from the multitude of black, red, and green screens.

"Sniping," the Future Warden distractedly replied. "I..." He stopped. "Never mind. Before you ask, Alice's out smashing people. I think." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look up at one of the screens that showed feeds from security cameras. "Yeah."

I spared a few seconds to glance up, scanning the screens real quick. "I don't see them."

"Who's 'them'?" Future Warden hadn't glanced back at me yet. I shrugged.

"You mean it isn't obvious?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Shouldn't the Twins..."

The Future Warden spun around in the chair, narrowing his eyes before sighing and shaking his head. "Intel." He snapped his fingers together, locking his gaze on mine. "Shouldn't you be looking at the radars, Warden?"

I glared at him, muttering various phrases under my breath as I directed my attention back to the radars. "Whatever..."

A bit of a silence settled between us, and I suppose it was for the best. I, for one, didn't want to die, and Future was probably seriously tired of arguing. At least, it made sense to _me_. Anyway, this silence lasted for... about as long as it took the Mistress to get here. About a few minutes is my guess, give or take a few.

Case in point. Though the activity - or lack thereof, as it were - in the room did not change, there was certainly a different air about the room as soon as the Mistress entered, arms folded across her chest, looking about as unimpressed as she could possibly be. I simply ducked down and stared at the radars, gritting my teeth together, while the Future Warden was much more courteous... or at least did a better job of pretending to be, because I was probably _oozing_ frustration at this point. As he gestured for her to be seated at another similar desk - part of me wondered _how_ he got a hold of these things - he greeted with a calm, "Mistress."

"Warden." She was at the control panel now.

Things kind of started picking up from there. You'll see in a minute, trust me on this one.

"Hey, Warden!" The Future Warden said, glancing back at me. "Status report!"

"Er." I bet my lower lip, scanning the radars nervously. I didn't know what I was doing. I know he'd explained it to me, though... damn devices being so damn hard to read. "Oh! Some hostile troops coming in from the northeast." _I think..._ "Others coming from the other directions to either attack the other defensive towers or surround us, not entirely sure."

The Future Warden was quiet for a moment, likely considering this. "Alright, that's simple enough." Quite honestly, I wanted to be astonished, or at least shocked and appalled, but... that just wasn't possible right now. "Okay, let's see..." While he was mumbling under his breath, going through various plans, or so I assumed, the Mistress was already issuing orders. I'd just ignored her for the most part, not really thinking the ordeal wasn't that important yet _{and, at that moment, I hadn't been watching the radars}_. It was an easy mistake to make at this point, honestly.

...then I glanced down at the radars. My eyes widened, and I studied it for what barely felt like a millisecond before choking out, "What are they... oh, oh shit!"

The Future Warden, sensing my panic, immediately responded. "What?" He asked, voice steady as he whipped his head around, eyes narrowed with concern. "What is it?"

I didn't even double-check myself this time. "I-I think you'd be better seeing for yourself."

The Future Warden glanced from me to his control panel and back again, mixed with worry and frustration as he finally got up, cursing to himself in the process, and quickly hovering over me, studying the radars. "Oh _shit_."

Finally, the Mistress couldn't stand it any more. "All right, what _is_ it?" She snapped, glaring back at us, and we exchanged glances before I shook my head.

"You know what? It-it doesn't matter. We should just figure out what to do like _right now_."

The Future Warden had interrupted me almost at the end of my input, he replied as he returned to his station, "I... I don't know. Some hostile forces have pretty much disappeared off the radar, but some are slipping around and I think someone knows exactly where to attack us. Or, essentially, oh my _shit_ we're screwed."

I managed to smirk, retorting, "That's one way to put it..." In all actuality, I was just trying to keep calm and it was the only thing I could think of saying.

One of the screens mounted on the Warden's _{not mine}_ control panel, monitor originally black, now showed Jared, probably coming in to report. "Sir. The forces seem to be retreating."

"I know." The Future Warden was silent for a moment, clasping his hands together and was staring down, frowning. After a few moments of this, he glanced back up. "Don't fall back. I've got the radars, you decide what to do from there."

"Wh-" Jared looked a bit confused, but he nodded. "Whatever you say, sir."

The Future Warden glanced back at me and gestured for me to press one of the buttons, and after some 'yes, that one' and 'no, not that one, you moron!'s, it had finally been figured out, and I figured I must've been making a digital copy of the radars, which was sent to Jared _{or so I assumed.}_. Pursing my lips, I just kept one eye on the radar - I wasn't going to make the same mistake again. "I think they know we know. I'm looking at all of these other radars and as I think we're making patrols, they're pulling back. Probably waiting for us to lower our guard."

"Hm." Future frowned. "Are they retreating?"

"No. I don't think so, just waiting for us to get complacent."

"I can do that." As I glanced back, he was smiling, and immediately I was filled with a sense of dread.

I didn't say anything _against_ it, however, and just stayed quiet about my doubts. "Okay, that's great. But what are we doing?"

The Future Warden glanced back at me. "We're going to pretend that _this_ was a false alarm, and we'll set up an ambush for them when they come to attack us when they think our guard is down." He was smirking, nodding to himself. "I know we've got some secret tunnels underneath Superjail, and if we can just shuffle our army down there and release them when we see the rebels, I think we're set!"

Wow. That... actually sounded like a good plan. I blinked. "Well. Sounds like a plan."

The Mistress was a bit skeptical. "You better have a second plan in mind if this fails, Warden."

The Future Warden rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. _Look_, it'll work! You'll see!"

"She's... got a point, you know," I remarked as she left, and by this point, the older Warden was staring up at the ceiling, as if he wasn't really paying attention to me.

"I know. And? I'm really, _really_ sure this will work. I'll show the two of you." He finally moved his head down, turning back to the control panel. "Now I'm going to go talk to Alice. Why don't you head up and help Jared keep an eye out?"

After staring at him for a few moments, I finally sighed, shaking my head. "Fine. Best of luck to you."

~.x.~

I'd just finished my shift with Jared when I had found a note by the Future Warden to meet him down in the secret tunnels. And he gave me directions on that sheet of paper. Which was good for me, because... why the hell would _anyone_ make a secret elevator? And I didn't know where said thing was, soooo... hey, at least I knew now.

After much pacing in the elevator _{mostly out of boredom than anything this time}_, it finally reached the secret tunnels. I quickly slipped out, glancing around.

The tunnels were... impressive. I hadn't actually seen these before, and they looked relatively new. The ground was plain dirt and rock, but the curved walls and ceiling were crafted from a hardy metal that was keeping the hole thing from caving in on itself. I frowned, looking at the tunnel, which split into three ways. _This is really intricate,_ I mused, impressed. _When did I find time to make this?_

A voice ringing through the tunnels distracted me. "Ah, Warden! There you are!"

I looked up, noticing the Future Warden _{and for once, he hadn't scared me}._ I folded my arms across my chest, walking towards the other, who had emerged from the tunnels, tan skin coated with ash and soot, as well as a few bleeding cuts. I blinked, staring at him and quickening to a slight jog. "The hell? Future, are you okay?"

"Huh?" He shook his head, dusting some ashes off of his uniform. "I'm fine. Save for someone blowing up the tunnels farther down." Come to think of it, I thought I felt the ground shake, and his voice sounded particularly hoarse, even more so now that he was coughing. "I'll live."

"Uh, no, you're not," I argued. "You should really get that looked at..."

"Aww, is that _concern_ I hear in your voice?" Future Warden teased with a wide grin, and I felt my face grow hot as he continued on, "I'm touched, truly."

I can only imagine how badly I was blushing at that time. Teeth gritted, I hissed, "Shut up, that's not funny. It was an innocent enough thing to say." I pursed my lips, glaring at the older Warden, who was quite smug now. "Just tell me what happened and what's going on."

"Yes, well." He fidgeted slightly. "You should probably see for yourself. Then I'll explain."

I twitched, eying him nervously. "It's that bad?"

He only gave me a grave nod and gestured for me to follow him. I did. And mostly, I was trying to come up with the possible worst case scenarios as to what could've happened. It all started to piece together when I could smell and taste the smoke, and I covered my nose and mouth with a hand to keep the air out. The other, being stubborn, did nothing to protect his respiratories. The damage was recent, and it felt slightly warmer in here than it did in the earlier tunnels. "I thought you'd told us this would work?" was the first thing I had asked before tacking on, "What exploded?", and fine, in hindsight, it was a _really_ obvious question, but you know, I had to check.

The Future Warden nodded. "All of the tunnels leading to the surface were blown to hell. I don't know who could be behind this."

Well, I had some pretty good guesses. A pretty good guess, rather. "_I_ wouldn't do this," I responded rather defensively. "Mistress was out running her soldiers through some drills. Jared and Alice wouldn't ruin our plans like _this_..."

"That's about as far as I got. No one knows about these tunnels. The rebels don't know..."

We shared a confused look _{rather, I made a thoughtful one and he just looked perplexed}_, and then I had my 'realization' of the day. Except that it wasn't really a realization. Ah well, you get my point, right? "So far as _we_ know. They _could_. They probably do, too. Did the radar room have any security cameras installed?"

The Future Warden avoided my gaze, scuffing the toe of his boot on the ground. "...yes. To make sure no one entered unannounced and destroy the equipment."

I nodded. "And does the feed lead anywhere?" I asked, making hand motions for him to keep talking.

"Of course. Accessible only through a specialized password. I'm not stupi- oh. I see where you're going with this."

"Not my point yet. But if someone were to get a hold of that password somehow?"

"...then whoever was intruding at the time heard the plan."

"_Exactly!_" I actually felt like we were going somewhere with this. Or that I was finally making my point. "_That's_ why the rebellion's going to attack us later!"

"...then who're the double-crossers?"

I think he just completely missed my point. Oh well. "Who they are, we don't know, but all we know is that someone got access to it." It kind of hurt to say it, but I didn't have much choice outside of that.

Future Warden frowned, folding his arms across his chest. "Very well, I'll accept that." There was another bout of coughing, and once that had passed, he sighed. "Let's go. I need to plan again."

"_After_ you get looked at."

He didn't argue, and not a single word was shared between us after that.

_{.end of chapter 13.}_

-your Warden


	14. Whaaaaat?

{.chapter 14.}

what do you mean you don't know?

_Saturday, August 16th, 2025; the day on which things go... bad. a lot._

I made absolutely sure a few hours ago that the Future Warden at least got his wounds looked at. As it turned out, he was fine; just getting out of the smoke and disinfecting the cuts had more or less solved things. I was satisfied and Future Warden wasn't in the mood to be pestered. So it didn't take us all that long to return to the hallways once more. And to reiterate on my point of Future being just not in the mood to deal with _anything_, well...

"I still don't get it," Future Warden muttered, "I know I don't have any traitors. I shouldn't. I'm extremely thorough!"

By this point, I had decided that I would just give up for the moment and just tell future me what he wanted to hear. Or what I think he wanted to hear. Even though some small part of my soul was dying as I did so. Or, at least, I was going to subtly hint, if that'd make myself feel any better. I'd try to, anyway. "We'll find out who did this, okay?"

"We'd better," he hissed. "Execution. A creative one, I think. As soon as I come up with one and we apprehend the damned fool."

"Have fun daydreaming." _I know I won't be_.

Future had fallen silent, and I wasn't really sure if he'd heard me or not. If he had, okay. If he hadn't, whatever. I didn't really want to bother him right now, and besides, I had plans of my own to take care of really soon. Like... probably now, I was a bit behind. I glanced over at him, noticing that he was deep in his own world now, probably thinking about just how to get rid of his - technically, _our_, I guess - problem. "Later."

The only way I knew he had acknowledged me was the nod as he shambled off to who knows where. Meanwhile, I was going to head off to some room with security feeds. Surely there had to be some room like it.

~.x.~

Indeed, there was. I feel so lucky. Not. Look, I just found out that Superjail had a surveillance room _{which was really... eerie, come to think of it}_ and just used that. Besides, it was really easy to figure out after messing around with it for a few minutes. Which worked out for me, because it was probably midnight right then and I probably shouldn't have been doing much of _anything_ in the middle of the night. But whatever. I was intent on finding out if I was actually _right_.

Truth be told, it probably hadn't been much of a mystery to me, but I still wanted to be sure, present some facts, some truth, to future me later. Well, I was hoping that that'd work, but I wasn't holding it too highly at this point, so...

For a while, I had to skim through the videos. Apparently they get caught in chunks. Or at least, they regularly get split up for easy reference. Handy. And I'm 99.9% certain that I didn't do it. So I just looked at the one before things were blown up. About two hours ago, if I take myself on my own word. Which I think was pretty accurate. It was really rather curious, really, as I started examining what was happening before. And technically it was more like three hours ago. That's not important. So, observe:

...

For a few minutes, nothing was shown. Nothing out of the ordinary, I mean. Well, I mean- you know what, forget it. I'm going to forget what I was writing about if I don't get to it.

I really didn't see anything out of the ordinary, though. The only thing that seemed off was that we didn't have any troops down there. The halls were perfectly clear of any and all bodies, or even objects, for that matter. Then I started to hear voices.

"This is the last tunnel." It was a low, monotone voice - the older twin. "Are you ready?"

"No," replied a higher voice. I think it was the younger twin, Castor.

"What are you saying?" They were starting to come into view, now, the older twin glaring at the younger. "If we block these tunnels, they will be helpless. We can attack them before they even know we are here."

The other shook his head. "I cannot do this."

"Cannot do this? They are the enemy."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Brother, I don't-"

"You're either with me or against me, Castor. Do not forget that."

Castor looked away from his brother. "I will not."

The elder of the two was now planting some dynamite around the tunnel, avoiding his brother now. "Good."

The other faltered, watching his brother before taking a few steps back. This was where all conversation ended.

...

I turned off the surveillance tapes, a pensive look on my face as I considered this. I _had_ been right. I wasn't just stubborn or paranoid _{...well, maybe I was paranoid, but... shut up!}_; at least _one_ of the twins was behind this. So I was right.

Not as right as I'd hoped to be, though.

...that doesn't make sense.

...I should go. I can't think.

~.x.~

...I think I only got about an hour of sleep last night. Don't ask. I just had some others things I needed to do and I didn't want to write about them _{and I was a little too tired to write coherently}_ for fear that if Future ever got a hold of this, he'd start asking about them and I _really_ don't want to talk about it. Them. Whatever.

See? Still tired.

And did you know that I woke up passed out in the middle of some _hall_? Says a whole lot about how much I was doing... and I _really, really_ hope no one saw me. I don't want to explain that. I don't even know if I could.

I decided that I was going to go talk to Future Warden for our next plan of action, find out what that was, and... go from there, I guess.

And I couldn't really think of anything else to do, so off I went to the Future Warden's office. It was still really quiet in the jail - I guess it was early for everyone else, too. I had arrived at the office to find that the door was quite open, so I at least got to the doorway, leaning against it.

Inside, the room was also fairly empty, save for the familiar desk covered with papers, the Future Warden sitting just behind it, reading through the white sheets. It might've been intel, but I wasn't sure. I thought intel was... a bit more organized, or at least, it was when it was left alone. I barely even got to say anything when the Future Warden noticed my presence. "Where were _you_ last night?"

It took me a few seconds to realize he was talking to me. And I half-considered not telling him everything, but it was a little hard to cover up... I wasn't _that_ good at hiding my tracks, so to speak. With a yawn, I finally started to reply. "Surveillance room."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

I don't think it even occurred to me right then to actually tell him that 'I think I found our culprit'. Not immediately. The Future Warden watched me for a moment before asking, "So, did you have a reason for being here, or not?"

"Uh... yeah. Yeah, I did." I pushed myself back into a fully standing position, and I made my way to the other's desk. "I think I found our culprit. You're not gonna believe me if I tell you. You'll just have to watch the tape."

"Tape?" The Future Warden looked skeptical, and I wasn't really sure why. I frowned.

"Well, what the hell else am I supposed to call it?" That was a rhetorical question. Thankfully, Future recognized it as such and just let the matter be. "Just..." I sighed. "What's the plan? Do we have one?"

I had been pacing around the desk by this point, and the Future Warden frowned. "Ah... that." He gave me a look that more or less said, 'please knock it off', and so I ceased in my walking, and instead settled for fidgeting it a less obvious way. Future didn't look like he'd really care less, continuing on, "That... I don't really know. I haven't heard anything since yesterday and I can't really base a plan off of nothing. And intel's been really scarce..." He shook his head. "I'm not at all sure."

"Fair enough, but we should at least be ready for something sometime soon."

"I know."

"Just... keep it in mind."

"I am." There was barely even a moment of silence before he straightened up, leaning over to his right to peer around me. "Castor!"

I turned around, noticing the younger of the twins, and it took me a moment before I actually recognized him. "Hey... don't I-" I cut myself off at the look.

He seemed to recognize me right off the bat and flashed me a look that was, 'don't even say it', and I decided that I might as well, and so I just got out of the way, watching him - he was carrying a folder of sorts with I guess were probably papers, maybe some discs, whatever information he could find, if Future was actually telling me the truth. And anyway, he was pretty okay right now _{though I was still going to be wary, mind you; just because he saved my ass didn't mean I was going to trust him with my life, let alone anything}_. He greeted the Future Warden with a simple, "Warden."

Future leaned forward, hands clasped together. "What've you got for me?"

Castor glanced over at me for a split second before handing Future Warden the file. "...rebellion plans. This was as recent as I could find."

"Anything's gonna help right now, I think," he replied, taking the file and opening it. "Thank you. Dismissed."

Castor and I flashed each other suspicious looks before he magicked himself out of the room, or whatever it is that he did, and I glanced over at the Future Warden. "So, should I stay, or let you go read over those?"

He looked up at me, considering this for a moment. "Uh, go. I'll call you back when either everything goes to hell or I actually have a battle plan."

Eh, alright. I could live with that. I didn't even bother saying anything as I left to do who-knew-what. I wasn't actually sure, but I was going to do _something_, damn it.

~.x.~

...okay, so maybe I didn't _actually_ do anything. And maybe I was completely and utterly _bored_ out of my mind. And _maybe_ I just couldn't come up with anything _to_ do. Look, I don't really care, alright? Besides, I'm trying to go off on some completely different tangent, so if you don't mind...!

Future Warden eventually gathered everyone important that was currently within the base to his office to talk. All right. I was one of the last few people to arrive _{I was busy watching video feeds from the surveillance room again}_, and you know, to be honest? You know that 'knights of the round table' thing? It looked a lot like that. Except a whole hell of a lot less impressive. And fewer people. So... it was probably a very, _very_ loose analogy, but what the hell ever.

Future nodded in my direction as I found a spot around the desk, glancing around. There weren't too many people, which was probably for the best - if too many people knew, then everybody would know, which would increase the likelihood of the rebellion knowing. Not that the probability of that had probably increased tenfold with the younger twin here. Besides Future, Castor, and I, there was also the Mistress, Jared, and Alice. Like I said, not too many people.

"Alright, we can finally get started," the Future Warden said after he swept a glance around the desk. "I'll be quick." I wasn't really so sure about that, but it would probably be more my fault, given my current tendency to argue with just about everything he says. However, I forced this out of my mind as the Future Warden began to start talking. "Castor here gave us the information that tells me that this isn't going to be pretty. I just want to tell you the basic plan and... I don't know, extrapolate from there."

I gave him a doubting frown. "That sounds like a wonderful idea." Not that I was really sure what extrapolate meant. I think I did, though. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Mistress give him a skeptical look as well, about to second me on this, I suppose, and the Future Warden rolled his eyes.

"Hush, hush. I've kept us alive this long, remember that." Fine. I gave up. "I'm just going to give the basics, okay? Go from there. I already said that. That said. We'll go on shifts. Eight to twelve hours, depending on the situation, though I'm predicting about twelve will be needed. Mistress. We'll be giving the orders. Warden, Jared, possibly Cherice-" He glanced over at the Mistress, who nodded. "-look-out and radars. Alice, Castor, you know the drill. Nova and Jailbot will be shooting down any aerial crafts. Did I miss anything?"

I didn't know nearly enough about _anything_ to actually complain, criticize, or otherwise say something about it, and so I just stayed silent, staring at the desk idly. Alice nodded with an 'alright', and Jared did as well, though he asked, "What are we expecting?"

Future Warden gave a solemn smile, though it wasn't reflected in his eyes; oh. This was _bad_. "A _whole_ lot of dead people, is my understanding." His voice reflected the grim stare in his eyes, and I frowned, fidgeting.

"This... is going to be bad."

"In a way, yes." He glanced around. "If no one else has anything meaningful to say, you can leave now."

That was more like, 'everyone, just get out of my office now'. Everyone except for me left the room, and I watched him. As soon as they were out of earshot, I glanced at him. "You're not nearly as excited about the prospect of people dying than you usually are." Actually, I wanted to mention how he seemed like he was moping, but I couldn't really say much about that.

"I'm not holding high hopes for this battle."

"Sure, but you could at least not act like you're about to die."

"But that's just the thing."

I stared at him, and I glanced over at the doorway. "Uh... have fun being pessimistic, then. I'm going to go make sure I won't die, so if you don't mind..."

"I don't mind, in fact." Well, at least he could still be sarcastic. I felt okay about that. Well, actually, I wasn't sure if he was being serious or not, but I didn't really want to stay long enough to find out.

_{.end of chapter 14.}_

-your Warden


	15. Sometimes, I really hate you, future

{.chapter 15.}

one word: _shiiiiiit_.

_Wednesday, August 27th, 2025; the day on which everything else goes to hell or something._

The real battle started a day after. It continued for a week and a half. Today marks that half. I'd describe the past few days, but it's not really that exciting; just a long period of waiting and watching. And passing out after long, twelve hour shifts. I thought today, would be the same but-

"Warden, get up!" This was a soft, female voice. Who...?

I opened my eyes, finding myself on some platform, a familiar red-haired woman _{who was holding a sniper rifle about as tall as she was, hair included}_ beside me who was now standing up. I blinked, wavering between panic and just plain confusion. Once it clicked, though, I stood up, nodding. "Cherice." I don't know if it was more of a greeting or a 'oh it's you'. And anyway, any panic I had before was gone now that I recognized her. Sniper or not. "Time for me to take over?"

I don't think either of us were particularly awake, either. She just kind of nodded, handing the sniper rifle over to me, as well as a pair of binoculars. She wasn't particularly talkative, either. Not that I was, for that matter, but still. "...right. Okay." I watched her as she left, and then I took position, setting the sniper rifle down beside me and used the binoculars to get a better look at the area - see if any enemy troops were coming. I didn't see anything quite yet. It was either that or couldn't.

A few minutes before the official start of our next shift _{8:40 a.m.}_, the pager buzzed, and I pulled it out. "Yeah?"

"Cherice came. Apparently nothing's happened yet. But have you noticed anything unusual yet?"

"Why're you asking _me_?" I looked through the binoculars. "...but anyway, no." I paused for a moment before tacking on, "...you _do_ realize that the shift just started, right?"

The Future Warden faltered. "I... I know. Just... nervous, is all." I think we all were at this point. "Keep in contact?"

"Sure." With a click, the conversation ended, and the pager disappeared into one of my inside pockets. Already, I knew that this would be a long day... longer than usual, I mean, though I didn't quite realize it right then.

~.x.~

It was a bit of a surprise to feel the ground shake from artillery fire and get up to go start sniping away at people when you notice that holy _shit_ is that a lot of people down below. I was glad that I was on a platform with solid walls, no gaps, made from metal. I was high enough so that no one would be stupid enough to see me, and even if they _did_ see me, it'd be a pain in the ass to try shooting me. Even if I wasn't _directly_ in danger, I was still a bit nervous, because... oh my shit, that's a lot of rebels.

Part of me really wanted to know how I missed an army as large as that. Another part of me wondered how Future got on the bad side of that many people. The other part of me wanted my mind to just shut up and do something productive.

"What's going on over there?" The Future Warden again. He sounded like he was panicking slightly - it was just barely there, but I managed to pick up on it.

...and then gave him even more reason to be worried, whoops. "Nothing! I'm just trying to pick off people over here, nothing out of the ordinary!"

Though I really _was_ concerned about the rebels overpowering our own army and killing us all, to be honest, but I wasn't going to say that. On purpose. Or by accident, preferably, though not as much could really be done about that. But I was at least as calm as I was letting on. Which, _I_ think, was really calm - maybe it was just sheer apathy from a lack of rest, or maybe I was just _so used_ to this kind of crap that I didn't really care, or maybe it was both, I don't know. But the Future Warden wasn't really pleased with how easily I was waving this off.

"Warden." I wasn't quite listening to him yet, pulling the trigger and hitting someone in the chest, and they were trampled by their fellow men. And it was hard not to hit someone with as many soldiers as there were, anyway. "We're talking about what's left of the world's army, here! You can't really think this isn't a problem!"

"No, I _don't_!" I snapped, pulling the trigger once more. "It's- wait a minute, _what_? This is the world's _army_?"

"_Yes_, it is!"

Oh, _god_. Under any other circumstances, I'd... frustrated, I let out a loud, long sigh. "Damn it, Future..." I shook my head. "I can't believe you'd be stupid enough to do something like this!"

"It's amazing how you state the obvious with a sense of true discovery," the Future Warden deadpanned, "Tell me something I _don't_ know now."

Okay, at least we were both on the same page here. "Just... never _mind_." One more dead guy somewhere. "Forget it. Where is everyone?"

"In a state of panic, that's where. Except for you, evidently."

"Hey, I'm panicking _just_ as much as everyone else!" I protested. "I'm just not making a big show of it! _Unlike_ everyone else!" Irritated, I turned off the pager, only to hear a vertically challenged man behind me.

"Sir, are you-"

"I'm _fine_, Jared," I snapped, starting to become highly frustrated with all the distractions. "Help me get rid of some of these soldiers!"

With a nod, Jared - with his own sniper rifle, go all of us - joined me in the killing of soldiers via a really good rifle and position. We probably weren't doing much, by any means, but it was better than nothing. Off in the distance - and I mean the far distance, but my concentration at the moment was really all over the place so far as that goes - I could see our structures, defense towers _{or maybe the subsidiaries; they looked like towers}_ firing lasers at the rebels and clearing a fine line here and there.

Yeah, I really don't know what everyone else was freaking out about. Sure, it was sudden, but...

Suddenly I noticed the airplanes. And suddenly I knew _exactly_ what they were freaking out about. "Oh shit! Aircrafts? Please tell me they can't see us."

"I'm sure they can't see us," Jared reassured, and that... actually kind of helped me, actually. "They're busy trying to kill off our soldiers."

"...o-oh. Okay." I wasn't going to die _right_ away, then. Just... later. That... was a comforting thought. Not.

~.x.~

I knew that Jared would be better off sniping without me and so I ran off to the control room with all of the radars. Which I actually knew how to deal with now.

Future Warden was less than pleased with my arrival. "Warden! What the hell are you doing back here?" He hadn't even needed to look back to know I was there.

"I don't know, but I'm trying to help as best I can!" Which was a really good thing, if I was seriously that concerned, which meant that I'd probably be everywhere at once... which actually might be a pain in the ass, but whatever.

He sighed. "Fine. Help issue orders." He gestured to his right, and my gaze followed him, and I nodded. I wasn't going to argue. Or wonder about why he had _so many damn desks_. And actually, I was more thinking about how that was a huge leap of faith, coming from him; were it _me_ calling the shots, I wouldn't let me...

...oh, wait... uh, forget that little mistake.

Regardless, I slid into position at the third control desk, and took a glance around it. A radar here and there, a few screens showing the actual battle outside, and a whole lot of commands. Already, this seemed like a bad idea. Though maybe I was still freaking out slightly from before.

Future wasn't too busy and calm enough to reassure me a bit. "You don't have to give orders to the troops; Mistress and I are taking care of that." Uh, okay, _great_. I _still_ thought this as a bad idea. Not like there was much I could really do about it, though, so I'd cooperate as best I could.

The thing is, even though we were caught completely and totally by surprise, it looked like Future Warden had it all under control right now, if only because he looked like he was enjoying this.

"Go!" This was hissed into a microphone of sorts, and I glanced over at him, confused - what was he... he looked back at me, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"...nothing," I responded, averting my gaze and staring at the screens instead. "Nothing."

Nothing I was going to bother mentioning, and besides, I was little jumpy still, whatever. He let the matter drop, and I took a deep breath, frowning. I'd just do my best to not put that much thought into it...

...and was quickly interrupted. "Sir! What's the situation?" Jared. I had glanced over my shoulder for a split second to see, but then I decided against it, shaking my head. It wasn't that important. Instead, I hunched over a bit more, messing with one of our towers, and cut through a swathe in the rebellion army... and probably killed a few of our own men. Oops.

Luckily, Future Warden either didn't notice or didn't care. Either one worked for me. "Good for now, Jared." He didn't even so much as glance back at the other, holding up his left hand and pointing at Cherice from a very awkward-looking angle. "Cherice! Off-duty." The hand moved from Cherice to Jared. "And Jared, help us out here."

"All right," both of them responded, albeit in completely different manners. Cherice had left quickly, presumably to make sure she didn't get dragged back into this mess, and Jared swiftly settled into the new role. And as it turned out, he was much better at noting enemy positions than Cherice was... or so I was assuming, given the way the Future Warden was acting much less edgy than he had been only a few minutes ago.

Things also started to become eerily familiar from there on out. Not that this really clicked at that particular time.

It seemed like we were really getting hit hard after that, too, once Jared had taken over the task. "Germans are engaging, Euro-American forces are trying to push forward on the northern front, and the Japanese are trying to bomb us, sir."

Future Warden blinked. "Oh. Good to know."

"Is it just me, or did we just get hit really hard?" I asked, issuing another attack while I did so.

"Not really," Future responded, still abnormally calm. "Cherice just doesn't alert me on everything. And neither do you, to be honest. And it's hard to multi-task, you know..."

I shook my head. "Fine, just me." I eyed one of the screens. "Hey, why are bits of the rebellion retreating?"

No one answered my question. Frowning, I didn't bring it up again and just figured that they were probably the smarter soldiers. I mean, it _was_ possible... but this seemed a bit off. All right, fine, I _did_ bring it up again, but so what? "No, really. Ideas, anyone?"

"What makes you think they're doing anything important?" Mistress scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"No clue," Future Warden replied, "But I don't see anyone giving any signals."

"It's hard to say," Jared tacked on. "For now, I mean."

I leaned back into the chair with a soft thud, eyes covered with a hand, and I sighed. "That's _fantastic_," I groaned. "Let's go get killed or whatnot!" Waving a hand in the air in a frustrated manner as I sat back up and killing off a few more soldiers, I narrowed my eyes, not at all enthused by any of this.

As soon as some more of them started to turn turn tail and run, however, I'm pretty sure we all started blasting a good bit of them away. And let me tell you, fighting from back here is a whole hell of a lot less stressful or dangerous.

Within a few minutes, though, the soldiers of the rebellion had all either been killed or fled, and the battlefield was empty, save for our own troops. I had a crooked frown on my face, eyebrows furrowed.

Future Warden almost exactly mirrored my expression. "Think they're regrouping?"

My frown deepened, and I pursed my lips. "I don't think so." I glanced back at Jared, feeling just about as confused as I showed. "Jared?" The Future Warden turned around as well, one eyebrow raised.

Jared met both of our questioning gazes and just shrugged, shaking his head.

We exchanged glances before returning back to the task at hand. I felt kind of sick; from what, I had no idea, and I folded my arms across my chest, watching the screens. Future looked nervous for a few seconds, I noticed, before regaining an air of calm, and on two smaller screens on his control panel, he had set up a communication link. "Alice, Bruce," he began to address. "Return to base immediately." Closing the link, he fidgeted nervously.

~.x.~

It was a long period of waiting and watching, no words shared between any of us. That much, I could say. I managed to choke down a sick, nervous feeling and kept my mind quite blank, for what it was worth, but I couldn't say the same for my future self, who was extremely nervous by now.

"Jared?" He had asked.

"They're not coming back," Jared replied, frowning.

"Why aren't they?" This was more directed at himself than at any of us, and he stared at the screens. "What are they doing?"

I frowned. "Do we even want to know?"

The room was silent. Up until I barely saw a flash of green light, and I whipped around. It was the younger of the twins, and he looked like he was panicking, propping himself up on the doorway. Future Warden followed my gaze, tilting his head. "What the _hell_ is-"

The other shook his head. "No time! We must leave!"

None of us hesitated in getting up and running after him, as he was already quite on his way. "What the hell is going on out there, Castor?" I hissed, having caught up to him somehow, and I glared at him when he glanced back at me.

"The rebels are firing nuclear bombs. Right now."

"Oh." My glare disappeared immediately. I was rendered speechless, or at least, nothing could possibly sum up what was going through my head at that moment.

Future Warden had caught this and cursed under his breath. "Hell, no..." He glanced over his shoulder. "Mistress, Jared! Get to the underground bunkers! Warden and I will gather up everyone we can and catch up! And Castor, activate the defense systems!"

The Mistress and Jared acknowledged this with a nod and separated off from the group, and Castor also disappeared. I gave him quite a look. "Why can't I just go with them?"

"You'd want to kill yourself by the time I was done. I'm doing you a favor, trust me." I was a little skeptical of that, but... eh, fine. "And we won't be taking too long."

All right, I didn't even want to ask. I just didn't care any more by this point, so long as I got out alive.

So far as I could tell, we were taking an alternate route to the underground bunkers, but... it seemed wrong. The halls were so quiet and empty right now. Save for us, obviously. I wasn't paying too much attention to what the Future Warden was saying; I just didn't really care. And besides, I was freaking out, why would anyone expect me to care?

Apparently not too many people needed to be alerted, as he was done fairly quick. Not that I cared. Well, maybe I did. Not that I'd say that. I also noticed right then that we were heading for the formerly-secret-but-not-so-secret-anymore elevator. I would've asked about it, but... well, whatever worked, and besides, I was panting way too hard to actually talk.

We slid to a halt in front of the elevator, which the Future Warden forced open - for which he explained, "We're under lock-down, the equipment won't work right." - and when it opened, we both forced ourselves in, and it began to move downwards. I had been trying to use the chance to catch my breath, but the Future Warden had other ideas, opening a compartment and fiddling with it.

"What are you doing?" I asked warily, staring at him cautiously. I was a little too tired to be irritated with him right now.

He glanced back at me, still working with the wires. "Trying to override the elevator. We need to get down to the tunnels and _fast_."

_Oh no._ I knew exactly where this was going. There were a few sparks from the compartment, which Future slammed shut a few moments later, and the elevator jerked up for a moment before it started to fall down. "Get ready to jump!" I heard Future Warden yell behind me as the door opened, confirming that yes, the elevator really was falling, and I was paralyzed.

"What?"

My heart was pounding, and behind me, I felt the other's hands on my shoulders as he rushed forward, pushing me out, and I let out a yell. We were falling now; I couldn't see anything, eyes shut, I collided with the ground with a solid thud, and Future Warden followed suit, landing on top of me. I gritted my teeth but otherwise didn't say anything about that. I did, however, hiss, "What the hell was that for?"

He had yet to move, trying to catch his breath. "We're safe," he pointed out.

"Yeah, and you're gonna break my spine," I retorted, and I attempted to sit up. This caused more pain, and I fell to the ground with a growl. "Get off!"

"You don't have to be a jackass to prove your point," he replied as he got up, brushing some dust off of his uniform, and folded his arms across his chest. "Anyway, I think everyone's in the bunker by now. We should probably go so we don't miss anything fun."

"Come again?" I had finally gotten to stand up _{and was now regretting being stupid for trying to push him off myself}_, and I gave him a confused look. "Miss what fun?"

He gave me a look like as if he couldn't believe I had just asked him that. "The nuclear bombs, obviously!" I had no idea if he was being sarcastic or not. "Not important, though. We should probably make a run for it, actually. I don't know how safe these tunnels really are when introduced with a..."

The ground shook, and he pursed his lips, skin turning pale. "...nuclear bomb...?" I didn't reply, instead staring at him in an exasperated manner, and this lasted for a few moments before we started running.

_{.end of chapter 15.}_

-your Warden

* * *

Okay, so, it's not as good as could as it could've been, but here you go. Oh, and hey - be on the look out in hopefully in the next chapter that I'll have updated/completely and utterly altered/fixed _{?}_ chapter 8. But until then... later!


	16. I don't even know what to say

{.chapter 16.}

becoming not-enemies is hard. and boring.

And we were running like as if our lives had depended on it, I tell you. We didn't know what was going to happen and we hadn't intended on finding out. So what would've taken us about twenty minutes to get to the bunker took us about... seven or eight.

When we reached the door to the underground bunker, I planted one of my hands on the wall of the tunnel for support, panting, every cell within my very being probably wanting to kill me right now. In between gasps for breath, I managed to hiss at Future, who was busy trying to wrench the door open, "I... really... _really_... hate you."

"Whatever. Get inside."

~.x.~

_Friday, August 29th, 2025; the day on which we surfaced for the first time_

I hate being underground. Aside from the fact that it kind of freaks me out, it's hard to see, even with all the lights that are set up in the tunnels and bunker_{s?}_. And it's cold. But anyway, we've all been underground for I guess two days and I already hate it.

...so, anyway, I've mainly been keeping to the smaller, quieter rooms, where no one's near as likely to bother me. I was abnormally moody and felt kind of sick, so I was going to do everyone a favor for once. And, uh, I didn't feel like dealing with people. For once.

I glanced up when I heard the door open, seeing the Future Warden slipping in. My facial expression didn't really change, save for me raising one eyebrow. "What is it?"

At first, he didn't respond, nearing me. "I was going to ask you something, but first, what are you doing here?"

I just kind of shrugged. "Feel sick. I think it's because I'm not used to being underground." No idea if that was true enough, but you get airsick and seasick, why not groundsick?

"Maybe." He gave a thoughtful kind of shrug before situating himself next to me. "If that's the case, then you'll love my plan. And if it's not, you get to leave for a while, so you still win."

I raised an eyebrow once more, glancing over at him. "_Really_ now?" I asked skeptically, but then again, he seemed rather sincere about this.

In response, he nodded. "Mmhmm. Castor and I were planning on heading up into Superjail and activating some more machinery and such. And you're apparently five different kinds of special today, so I thought I'd ask." He paused. "Fine, I'd ask you even if you were _perfectly_ fine, but that's not my point. Are you coming?"

Well, it didn't sound like a bad idea, I'd give him that much. "Uh, sure. When? Now?" Because I totally wasn't going to complain with 'now'.

We both shrugged. "Doesn't really matter. We're pretty much ready to surface... whenever we feel like it."

I stood up, albeit in a shaky manner, letting the wall support me. "Go on ahead without me. I mean I'm coming, I just feel..." I started to feel queasy again, and I preemptively covered my mouth with a hand, moaning slightly. "...kinda like that."

He winced. "You don't have to, but okay. See you at the mouth of the tunnel, then?"

"Yeah. Sure. Okay."

~.x.~

In about an hour or so, the nausea had _finally_ more or less subsided, and now I was only a few minutes away from the mouth of the tunnel. I was hearing voices - I mean real voices, not the ones you hear in your head - and it was likely the Future Warden and the younger twin. It wasn't like I could understand that much, and besides, if it was anything important, then I supposed that Future would give me the memo when I got there. That was the theory, at any rate.

I was still using the wall as a means of support, just in case. I was thinking that I wouldn't really need it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Or something like that.

...I'm starting to sound more and more like the Future Warden. That's... kinda disturbing. Moving on.

But now I was close to the end of the tunnel, where I saw Castor and Future Warden waiting around and talking. As I got closer, Future Warden redirected his attention to me. "You're here!" He sounded legitimately surprised. "Are you okay?"

I was getting really tired of that question. "I'm fine," I replied _{and somehow managed to not snap}_, and gave a very brief nod to Castor. "Subsided for the moment. Shall we head up?"

"Sure, unless Castor's got something to say."

Castor looked like he was about to panic, but he regained his composure just as quickly. "...yes, actually. I had been unable to seal the jail in time, and is likely still radioactive."

The Future Warden pursed his lips, and he nodded. "Well, good thing I have hazmat suits and anti-radiation pills..." He flashed a quick smile, which was not reciprocated by either of us. "Come on, let's go. We'll head up once precautions are taken."

I pursed my lips as well, following him. "You're in an unusually good mood. Still."

"Why shouldn't I be? We didn't die. Maybe the soldiers abandoned on the surface did, but _we_ didn't." I stared at him blankly, trying to see if he was just being a pain, but when he continued to have a calm smile, I quietly sighed.

Alright, fine, I give up. I just kind of accepted this, and he led us into a cave-like room filled with all kinds of equipment - I guess an appropriate term for it would've been kind of like a storage room. I guess. There was a small armory to our left, and the rest of the cave was just filled with random crap that I wasn't sure how Future Warden got the foresight to hide away in here.

By now, Future had already slipped off to a hollowed out hole in the wall where there was this collection of bottles, and he had already grabbed three, one of which he decided to chuck in my direction without warning. With a startled jump, I managed to catch it, and I continued to look annoyed as he did the same to Castor, who took the same action in complete stride. Future Warden noticed my frustrated glare, and he rolled his eyes. "What? Just take some pills and put on one of the suits over there and meet me back by the elevator."

I didn't feel much like saying anything in response, either, so I just choked down two pills and got into a hazmat suit. Actually, I think Future Warden was a bit off on the title, it looked more like an CBRN _{chemical biological radiological nuclear}_ suit, but... eh, fine. He probably wouldn't appreciate me pointing it out anyway.

It didn't take too long for me to come back, Castor following suit, and only silence was shared between us as we slipped into the elevator _{which we'd fixed yesterday... actually, I didn't help at all, but still, it got fixed, somehow}_, and the Future Warden placed a few commands manually via some kind of computer, and while I was still rather nervous about being _anywhere_ around him where technology was involved, it was kind of the point of no return. So far as I was concerned, anyway.

...well, we didn't die, and Future Warden didn't do anything at all to even have the possibility of it happening, so I guess I'll forgive him a little bit. Adding another tally for 'how much I trust future me'.

We reached the surface, and we emerged from the elevator. I was glancing around - or, more appropriately, forced to turn my head from straight on to left to right and back again to get the whole scope of the situation, seeing as these suits weren't exactly made for good peripheral vision, and... well, the younger twin hadn't been lying. There was clearly some nuclear and radiological damage. Most of it was fairly minor, and none of us had Geiger counters on us to see how radioactive it currently was, but my guess was quite a bit, which then made me wonder why Castor wasn't suffering from some form of radioactive poisoning. Then I decided that maybe he was just a freak of nature and that I shouldn't really worry about that. But anyway, the damage on the jail was more or less much less substantial than I would've guessed.

I mean, sure, some equipment was clearly broken, and I saw various piles of ashes where soldiers that we'd abandoned up on the surface died where they had stood, but oh well. All we'd have to hope is that the technology we needed to turn back on was still in one piece.

This ended when the Future Warden spoke. "Okay. I need to find the main power supply and get that working." He turned his head to look at Castor and I, and he stared at us for a few moments before he had come to a decision on his part. "And you two will activate some machines that'll absorb the radioactivity in the air. All of them."

He was about to escape before I interrupted in a confused manner, "All of them? Did you really have to specify?"

"Well, yes, I did, and I was _going_ to keep it at that until you asked." He sounded plainly irritated, and he waved one hand in the air in a bored manner. "We've got enough of these droids to clear the world of it in a few weeks. A few couple hundred of them. So let's quit talking and get this done."

I just kind of stared as he darted off to escape any more questions, and I blinked before I noticed that I was being left behind here. I held a tiny bit of resentment towards being left with Castor, but I couldn't really argue now, so I ran to catch up with the other. Once I had, I slowed to a walk, staring at the other cautiously. "...so... do you know what he's talking about? I don't." This was my best attempt at being 'friendly', or at least not wanting to eviscerate him, which, for me, and considering my current feelings toward the other, was probably the same thing at this point.

Castor didn't so much as glance in my direction. "Somewhat." Well, so long as neither of us wanted anything to do with the other, that was fine with me. I guess.

So we walked down the damaged halls in silence. In a very awkward silence, I should say, where both of us would've rather preferred to be anywhere but there. And it turned out he wasn't lying when he said 'somewhat'; he wasn't really sure where these machines were, either, so we checked every room we passed to make sure we didn't miss them.

Eventually, we found them. It wasn't a small room; this was huge, with rows of these small machines that looked like they were capable of flight, or at least levitation, one of those two. And there were... probably hundreds of these things. "I really hope we don't have to activate these _manually_," I muttered, staring at looked like a daunting task ahead of us.

Meanwhile, Castor had already gotten over this and walked over to a terminal, typing in something before pressing a key or two, and the machines all turned on, as well as the ceiling in this room opening up to reveal the outside world, which they all flew out into, and to prevent any more radioactive particles than necessary to come in here, the ceiling closed once more, and I gazed at him with a mix of irritation and self-beration. Of _course_ there'd be a computer that would activate all of this.

"We should go." I barely caught this, and was muttering to myself as we returned to the room we had came from, only to find that the Future Warden wasn't there. While the younger twin didn't seem to particularly care, I was a bit confused, and didn't even notice the other's indifference.

"What could he be doing?" I asked, more or less to myself, and had tried giving my future self a bit of leeway - maybe he was just... well, okay, fine, I couldn't figure it out. No good reason. Fine. I frowned, glaring at the hallways and leaning against one of the walls, waiting in the most impatiently patient way possible... if that makes any sense. Probably not.

Castor seemed a bit more nervous, watching the halls. "Perhaps we should just return to the shelter," he had said, and I glanced over at him, giving him a dry smirk _{though I guess he couldn't actually see it. oh well, I tried}_.

I seemed to relax, and as he was about to head back down, I waved my hands, shaking my head. "No no no. I don't- well, fine, head down, I don't care, but I have _got_ to hear how he's going to explain _this_."

He just gave me what I could only assume was a confused look and just headed back into the underground bunker. Meanwhile, I returned back to leaning against the wall, staring down the hall with the most patient posture I could muster up.

~.x.~

About thirty minutes later, I was starting to get tired of waiting and half-considered just going back to the bunker so I could actually breathe again. _No,_ I told myself. _If he's gone for half an hour, then this has got to be good._ That being said, I kind of doubted it, but I'd keep my hopes up, just in case. I don't think it even occurred to me that maybe he turned on the mainframe before we found the droids and went back to doing whatever he does in his spare time. Uh, well. At least I was right, otherwise I would've been waiting for _days_. Actually I take that back but seriously.

Upon hearing the sound of boots colliding with the ground, I blinked, staring in the direction I thought I could hear it coming from. It turned out I was right in my guess; within a few seconds or so, I could see the Future Warden, and I straightened up slightly, folding my arms across my chest. "What took you so long?" I was a little irate, sure, but his response was what really pushed me into confusion.

Future jumped, apparently not expecting me, and after he stared in my direction for a few moments, he hid his hands behind his back. He just seemed... abnormally nervous. "...I... got lost."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You got lost. In your own jail. That you've had for _years_."

"...yes." A hesitant response.

"I don't buy it." I watched him, hoping to scrutinize him for more hints as to what he was up to, but he gave away very little. That was probably because both of us had the full suit of protective gear on that's nearly opaque.

"Just take my word for it..."

That was my personal conundrum for the day. On one hand, I could say, hell no, I don't think so, but I don't think that actually would've worked out too well on the long run. Giving a slight frown, I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Fine. I'll take your word for it." Or not. I didn't really believe him. But anyway, conundrum solved!

And Future accepted this. "Good. Now let's just get back to the bunkers."

I watched him march into the elevator, and I followed, knowing that I really had no good reason for staying up here any more, and I really needed to not suffocate in this stupid CBRN suit.

~.x.~

_{I think} Saturday, September 6th, 2025; the day on which I decided to just go with it._

I didn't see Future much after that. Mainly, he was off being busy doing... whatever he was doing. I didn't know. All that I knew was that he was holing himself away in some room and he hadn't left for a week. I wasn't going to bother him... well, I really wanted to, but I figured that I really probably _shouldn't_, how about that?

Luckily, he took care of that for me. "Hey, Warden."

...as one might expect, I had no way of expecting that, but at least I didn't freak out on him on the unannounced... contact... whatever. "What is it?"

"Go find Castor and talk to him. It's important. I'd come and tell you myself what's going on, but I'm busy."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, why can't you just-"

_Click_.

He hung up on me. If I were holding the communication device, chances are I would've slammed it down on the ground out of sheer frustration, but I didn't... in either case. A rebellious part of me also considered not doing what he told me to do, because seriously, the bastard dodged my questions, hung up on me, and expected me to do what he told me to, and... seriously, how could he expect me to do that after all of... you know, _that_?

...then again, I _was_ bored out of my mind... and I didn't have anything better to do... and I wanted to feel like I was actually doing something _important_ that _wouldn't_ crash and burn right now... but I didn't really want to work with Castor, the less I had to do with him the better, and I just kind of wanted to spite my future self for the hell of it...

...oh, to hell with it. I'd go ahead and do it if only because I just didn't _care._

...well, uh, I probably should've cared to some extent. Emphasis on probably.

~.x.~

"He wants us to do _what_?"

"The Warden wants us to watch the surface. For the rebellion and radiation levels, I would expect."

I grimaced, now starting to regret my decision. While I'd been wanting to do something important _{and rest assured, I'm well aware that this was important in its own right}_, _this_ wasn't exactly what I had had in mind. And it was boring. Not to mention that I was expected to do this with the one guy whom I had no intent of trusting, let alone work or cooperate with. but I had no choice now.

I _knew_ I should've just found an excuse to avoid this, chewed out by my future self or no.

But alas, it was a little late for "should'ves" now.

I sighed. "Alright, then. So what? Stare at cameras? Listen to any signals we can pick up?"

"I doubt it. The blast likely disabled the cameras." Castor briefly made eye contact with me before signaling me to follow him into the next room, which after a bit of mental grumbling about the situation, I did.

"What? You mean you can't just magic yourself over to where there were security cameras and sweet talk them into working again?" I snarked, voice more or less unamused, and Castor met this with an equally, if not more so, unamused stare. "What?"

Despite his apparent lack of amusement, he gave a harsh bark that I would assume to be a snicker or a laugh, though I use that as a very loose term. "I'm afraid not." He led us to some computers, turning them on - or at least one for himself - and activating a program. "The damage is more physical. That, and I do not-" He appeared to be distracted by the video feeds that appeared on the screen, meaning that the cameras were still functioning somehow.

"Huh." Guess they survived the blast after all. I was waiting a little back behind the other, not really wanting to be a part of this. Still. "Looks pretty convincing, Ill give them that. But what if it's fake?"

"Unlikely." While he spoke, I decided that I wasn't going to get out of here anytime soon and turned on a computer, initiating a different program. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with radiation...? Castor continued on, "There are video feeds from most, if not all, of the security cameras. My brothe-" He shook his head. "-Pollux, he would not do this. I do not think..."

This caught my attention. "Your brother? Pollux?"

He looked up, but refused to meet my eyes. "...yes. He is."

That's not vague at _all_. Of course I didn't know what he was answering. Could he read minds? I hope not. I don't want to know that. I assumed he couldn't. I was also going to continue my 'friendly interrogation'. "And weren't you two Generals of the rebellion?" It seemed like they were. That was how it was in my theories, what I heard, and what I'd written down, anyway...

Castor had fidgeted nervously, staring at the screen instead. "Pollux was. I... was not. Officially, in any case." Wow, he actually told me this? Was he lying? There was no way he could be telling the truth, no one's that honest unless they have some trick up their sleeve, so to speak. And anyway, I was going to keep him talking to see if I could line up the facts when he suddenly asked, "How are the radioactivity levels?"

"Uh..." I stared at the computer screen. How did he expect me to know? All I saw were a few straight bars filled in up to various points from various locations. With numbers. I'd never seen a Geiger counter before, to be honest, and so I was just... well... let my words speak for themselves. "Hell if I know."

For once, he stared at me in a deadpan manner, as if trying to see if I was just being a pain, but when he saw that no, I seriously had no idea how to read a Geiger counter, he sighed. "Forget it. Watch the video streams instead."

As soon as he turned his head, I glared at him, if only because it made me feel better. When I was satisfied - and when I decided that I didn't want to really be caught glaring at Castor - I returned my attention back to the monitor.

"Higher radiation levels than previously expected..." I heard Castor murmur under his breath.

Immediately, I could tell that I was going to be here for a _long_ time.

~.x.~

_September 20th, 2025: the day on which there was much awkward staring._

Even two weeks later, our relations - between Castor and I, in case you somehow forgot - didn't get much better. They also didn't get much worse. Now, you may be wondering how it didn't change, but think about it. I mean, let me give you our basic day as we're forced to work together: we met, we worked, barked orders at each other, and then left when the job was done. That was it. We just got the job done with little-to-no chit chat. And I hadn't seen Future for weeks - he was still busy doing... whatever he was doing.

Seriously, what in the world could anyone be working on for about three weeks?

But anyway, uh. Today, we had nothing to do. Not really. We'd taken care of what needed to be taken care of well ahead of schedule, and I was anticipating a long, slow day with nothing to do. That... wasn't exactly the case.

Somehow, Castor found me wandering the halls. I don't know how. I think part of me doesn't really want to know. But anyway, the point is he found me, seeked me out actively. I can't even imagine why, but it probably was important? From personal experience, I can confidently say that the twins don't waste their breath with pointless words. And besides, even if I could imagine why, I probably didn't really feel like it. One of those two, take your pick.

"Warden!"

I glanced back, spotting him. "Castor." My tone was surprisingly level, if not emotionless. "What is it?"

"I must speak with you. It is very important."

I waved this off. "Then why not bring it up with the Future Warden, or somebody who's not me?"

When I started to walk of, Castor teleported, reappearing just in front of me, blocking my path. "No. I must speak with _you_."

He was pretty determined, I'd give him that, and besides, I was getting the feeling that I wouldn't have much choice in the matter, lest he stalk me so I'd talk to him or something. "Okay, then...? What is it, really?"

"Not here!" Castor hissed, eyes widening considerably, and though he didn't panic on me, he looked like he was going to. Until his body relaxed slightly, anyway. "Not here. Anyone could be listening." Personally, I was wondering about his sudden burst of paranoia, and then I figured it would probably be for the best if I didn't find out. "Come, follow me."

He invited no response, and I gave him none. After a moment, I decided that it would just be in my best interests to follow him, but we walked only a few steps before he grabbed my wrist. While I was baffled, I didn't have much time to think on it. One moment, we were in the hall; the next, we reappeared in what looked like a small, closed off room. Of course. He had teleported to make the trip quicker.

...I didn't bother spraining a lobe over that.

"We are safe here," Castor said after a moment, letting go and walking over to a few file cabinets, digging through them. "We can talk here. Let me find it..."

I had no clue what he was even looking for until he pulled out a thin file with a few papers in it, flipped through it, and passed it off to me. Upon taking it from him, I skimmed over the file name. "...Polydeuces... Pollux?" I stared at him, raising an eyebrow curiously. "You kept a file on your own brother?" That's really screwed up.

"_Keep_," Castor corrected. "It is kept up to date."

What the hell? I had a dumbfounded look on my face, I imagine, and I looked at the first page, reading it. "Why?" _Why would you keep a file on your own brother?_ I had wanted to ask, but instead I settled for, "Why would you give it to me?"

Castor gave a small frown. "I cannot let it leave this room, unfortunately, but I know you need the information. Read through it."

I watched him, like as if I were expecting him to be hiding something, but when that garnered nothing, I skimmed through the pages of information on Pollux. Some of it I already knew. Some of it was... Castor's theories about his own brother. I frowned, glancing at him. "How do I know you didn't fake it?"

"I wouldn't give it to you," Castor stated in a matter-of-factly sort of way, and I gave him probably my tenth confused stare that day. He didn't sound like he was lying. But why would he tell the truth...?

"But..." I frowned, reading through the pages again. Polydeuces, better known as Pollux, General of the rebellion army. Along with so many other pieces of information. It was almost... slightly unnerving. After few minutes, I glanced up at Castor. "What good would it do you to give me this?"

"You knew what was happening. I decided I should confirm your suspicions."

I frowned, shaking my head and giving him back the file. "Right." I watched him, still rather suspicious, and I took a few steps back. "I need to leave." I glanced at the door, and neared it _{and then realized that I had no idea where it led; oh well...}_, and once I was close enough to escape, I was about to leave before I turned my head, staring at Castor, who was staring at me. "Just... why didn't you tell anyone?"

He just shook his head.

_{.end of chapter 16.}_

-your Warden

* * *

I'm not particularly fond of this chapter... you can really tell where I got bored and where I got ideas, can't you? But trust me, on my pseudo-outline, I had for Chapter 16, "make the Warden and Castor not-enemies", and that's really hard to make interesting, especially in a boring underground bunker, and I swear it's important. But hopefully it turned out okay...

...in fact, it was so boring I never got around to rewriting chapter 8. Which in retrospect probably doesn't make much sense... but whatever.


End file.
